Daniel Ricciardo has insisted that Red Bull did improve as qualifying went on despite the Australian driver being only seventh fastest for his home Grand Prix.

The 26-year-old, who was the only non-Mercedes winner in the 2014 season, could only reach the fourth row of the grid for the race in Melbourne.

Ricciardo has admitted that this position reflects where Red Bull are in their development.

He told reporters: "We made progress through the session which is promising, it was so good to feel the car for once and push it properly.

"I think seventh is where we are now and I'm happy we achieved that as the weekend hasn't gone well until now and qualifying was the first time I used the soft tyre.

"I'm really happy with seventh as realistically that's the best we could have done today. The progress we made through qualifying is real and hopefully we can carry that on for the race."

Ricciardo's new teammate Daniil Kvyat was knocked out in Q2 and will start 13th on the grid at Albert Park tomorrow.