Oscar Piastri has accepted the blame for his Australian Formula One Grand Prix nightmare, crashing out on the way to the grid before George Russell led home a Mercedes one-two in Melbourne.
A dejected Piastri apologised to fans on Sunday afternoon, already speaking to media in the paddock around 30 minutes into the season-opening race.
The local-hope's McLaren bounced off a kerb on the way out of turn four, before careering into the barriers just 40 minutes out from race start.
The car was left with the front-right wheel hanging off the car and substantial bodywork damage, in a nightmare start to the 24-year-old's season.
With little time before lights out, his team were unable to repair the car for the start of the race.
Piastri was unhurt, but evidently shattered by the non-start.
"A scenario like that just shouldn't happen, so it's obviously very disappointing," he said.
"We had a couple of things going on but I think the first part I want to stress is that there is certainly a big element of it that was me.
"Cold tyres, I have used that exit kerb every lap of the weekend, but maybe I didn't have to."
Piastri's horror show meant he missed one of the great starts to an Australian grand prix, with Charles Leclerc's Ferrari going from fourth to first by the opening corner.
Teammate Lewis Hamilton also managed to go from seventh to third during the opening few laps, before a titanic battle between Leclerc and Russell for the lead.
The pair overtook each other six times over the first nine laps, with F1's unpopular new regulations at least providing more on-track action.
But when Isack Hadjar's Red Bull broke down 12 laps in and a virtual safety car was called, Mercedes took their chance to pit and set up the race.
It meant that after staying out Leclerc and Hamilton emerged third and fourth when they did eventually pit, with Russell and teammate Kimi Anonelli taking a comfortable lead out front.
Leclerc and Hamilton then came home third and fourth, while Piastri's McLaren teammate Lando Norris held on for fifth ahead of Max Verstappen, after the Red Bull star charged through the field from 20th.
For Piastri, there was only disappointment, suggesting F1's new regulations had potentially played a minor part with no mechanical issue to blame.
"The difficult part to take with that is everything was working normally," Piastri said.
"I was backwards before I'd really even had a chance to react. It happened pretty quick.
"But obviously crashing out of the race trying to get to the race is the situation that we were in."
Piastri had qualified fifth for his home GP, after narrowly missing out on last year's championship.
His crash continues a long run of horror stories for locals at Albert Park, with no Australian having ever reached the podium.
Almost 500,000 hopeful fans had attended this weekend's event, with a stand named in Piastri's honour and supporters in it decked out in green and gold.
"I'm just very sorry for everyone that came out at home to support me," Piastri said.
"It's clearly not the way I wanted to start the year either."
Drivers' championship favourite Russell, who finished 2.9 secs ahead of teammate Antonelli, described the "incredible" feeling of his sixth race win after fighting off Leclerc's challenge.
"It was a hell of a fight at the beginning. We knew it was going to be challenging," Russell said.
"I got on the grid, I saw my battery level had nothing in the tank, made a bad start, and then obviously it was a really tight battle with Charles (Leclerc), so I'm really glad to cross the finish line first.
"Honestly, thank you so much to the whole team because it's been a long time coming to have this car beneath us and I couldn't start off in a better way."
AUSTRALIAN F1 GRAND PRIX - TOP 10:
1. George Russell (Mercedes)
2. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
4. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
5. Lando Norris (McLaren)
6. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
7. Oliver Bearman (Haas)
8. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls)
9. Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi)
10. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
