Pascal Wehrlein to miss rest of Australian GP

Pascal Wehrlein will miss the remainder of the Australian GP as he does not feel fit enough to complete the race, Sauber have announced.

Wehrlein injured his back in January's Race of Champions and the German cited a "training deficit" caused by the injury as the reason behind his decision to withdraw.

Antonio Giovinazzi, runner-up in last year's GP2 championship, will replace Wehrlein in the car for the remainder of the weekend.

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"My fitness level is not as it should be for a full race distance because of my training deficit," Wehrlein said.

"I explained the situation to the team yesterday evening. Therefore, the Sauber F1 Team has decided not to take any risks. It is a pity, but the best decision for the team."

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He added to Sky F1: "Nine weeks ago my injury happened. Then I couldn't train as hard as I wanted and as I needed to do. I feel like I couldn't do the whole race distance.

"If I think after a few laps that's painful, I'm losing concentration, I'm losing focus and this would be too high risk."

Wehrlein missed the first winter test in Barcelona as he recovered from his injury but returned for the second week and took part in both practice sessions in Melbourne on Friday.

He completed 22 laps in Practice One and 30 laps in Practice Two, finishing 18th in both sessions.

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Team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said: "We have great respect of Pascal's openness and professionalism. This decision was definitely not an easy one for him, it underlines his qualities as a team player.

"The focus is now on his fitness level, and in such a situation we do not take any unnecessary risks."

Kaltenborn added that Wehrlein would be ready for the Chinese GP, from April 7-9 in Shanghai.