Sauber boss Monisha Kaltenborn was highly impressed with Antonio Giovinazzi's display in qualifying Saturday
The 23-year-old rookie was called on at the last hour to replace Pascal Wehrlein after the German took himself out of the running in the morning, judging his level of fitness insufficient to properly achieve the 58-lap race distance around Albert Park.
As a consequence, Giovinazzi - Ferrari's official reserve driver - was suited and booted and strapped into Sauber's C36 for 17 laps in the morning before finishing P16 in the afternoon quali session.
"I think he did an impressive job considering he really does not know the car," Kaltenborn told Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz.
"This is not the car we had at T1 (first week of testing), we changed a lot aero-wise. It's a very different feel. So he did a great job, impressive. It'll be interesting to see what he will do tomorrow.
Kaltenborn underlined however the Swiss outfit's allegiance to Wehrlein who is expected to be fully recovered and back in action in China.
"He (Wehrlein) is equally promising. You like to have these kind of problems or choices."
Asked whether the young charger's performance could lead to further outings within Sauber's test programs, Kaltenborn rules out the idea.
"No, that not going to happen," she insisted.
"We just had this arrangement in terms of replacement of a regular driver."
Gallery: all the pics from Saturday's action
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