Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position for the Australian Grand Prix, with a dominant performance in Melbourne that left his rivals reeling as he and Mercedes proved their car is once again ominously strong over the single-lap discipline. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was in second place but a full six-tenths back and followed in third by the Finn’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel. The German, last year’s world championship runner-up, was then left needled by Hamilton’s buoyant press conference performance.
The two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were fourth and fifth fastest but very close to the Ferraris. Ricciardo will start from eighth, however, because he has been given a three-place grid penalty after not slowing sufficiently behind red flags during second practice on Friday. Hamilton’s team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, fared even worse, after an accident that left him unhurt but failing to record a time in Q3.
Hamilton understandably said: “I am very, very happy with that lap, it was one of my best.” The Briton has made the best possible start to the defence of his fourth world title by putting his Mercedes at the front of the grid.
Hamilton has previously referred to the car’s qualifying mode as its “party mode”, able to deliver the highest speed, and best performance with the engine turned up over a single lap.
When Vettel was asked if he was concerned about the gap and Hamilton’s “party mode”, he delivered a considered response, hopeful that he would be closer in race pace. “I had a bit in hand,” he said. “I messed up a bit in the final sector. Not ideal but it felt like a good lap, a good session, the car was coming alive. I am pretty happy. The gap is bigger than we wanted ... seven tenths is quite big. Some homework for us but we’ll see tomorrow. We have seen many times now, usually on Sunday, things get a bit closer.”
Hamilton, however, was insistent that his lap had not been down to suddenly turning the engine up. “I can assure you we don’t have a party mode,” he said. “I used the same mode from Q2 to end of Q3. There were no extra mode I engaged in.”
This prompted an incredulous Vettel to query: “So what were you doing before?” Hamilton’s reply was pointed. “I was waiting to put a good lap in. To wipe the smile off your face,” he said.
Hamilton then insisted that he had been joking but Vettel gave no sign of having seen the funny side, nor of finding anything about his afternoon and the relative performance of his car entertaining.
The Briton put in the quickest lap on the first hot runs in Q3, proving metronomic at Albert Park. His first run with a time of 1.22.051 was exactly the same time as he had set in Q2. Vettel was three-hundredths back on his first run. Hamilton’s second, however, was simply untouchable, a masterful performance; even with Mercedes able to turn up the qualifying mode on the car, he exploited it perfectly. His time of 1.21.164 was an all-time lap record but more important was six-tenths quicker than Raikkonen in second and had seven-tenths on Vettel in third.
This, his fifth pole in a row in Australia, makes him the first driver to take the top spot for so many consecutive races at Albert Park and moves his career tally up to 73. It is Hamilton’s seventh pole in Melbourne and he has now surpassed his hero Ayrton Senna’s record of six poles at the Australian Grand Prix. Senna took all his in Adelaide, while Albert Park has hosted Hamilton’s successes.
Mercedes are attempting to secure a fifth consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ championship to match the record set by Ferrari between 2000 and 2004 and with the car looking immensely strong this is exactly the start they would have wanted.
The final session was ended by a red flag after Bottas clipped the inside of the kerb at turn one and it pushed him wide, he lost his back end and took a major hit into the wall on the outside of turn two. The Finn was unhurt but he was out of qualifying. The team have a lot of work to do on the car and the need to replace his gearbox means a five-place penalty, so he will have to start from 15th.
Hamilton had topped the time-sheets in Q1, with a 1.22.824, two-tenths up on Raikkonen and ahead of Vettel and Verstappen. But Vettel hit back in the second session with a fine run that was a tenth up on Hamilton.
The two Red Bulls opted to use the supersoft tyres in Q2, meaning they will be able to start the race on the harder rubber, in contrast to the other teams who all used the softest, ultrasoft rubber in the second session. The Red Bulls will be able to stay out longer in their opening race stint, giving them strategy options on Sunday, with their team principal, Christian Horner, suggesting the race may well require only one pit stop.
Haas confirmed their pre-season promise with Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean in sixth and seventh while the two Renaults of Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz were in eighth and ninth.
McLaren, looking to return to top form now using Renault engines, had a difficult session as Fernando Alonso had warned would be the case in Australia. He went out in 11th place in front of his team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne. The two Force Indias of Sergio Pérez and Esteban Ocon had a slow start to their season; the team finished fourth in the constructors’ championship last year but the pair were knocked out in 13th and 15th respectively, with Williams’ Lance Stroll in 14th.
Brendon Hartley in the Toro Rosso, now powered by Honda engines, was eliminated in 16th place in Q3 with his team-mate Pierre Gasly in 20th. The Williams rookie Sergey Sirotkin in his first F1 qualifying went out in 19th. The Two Saubers also went out in Q3 but Charles Leclerc impressed on his F1 debut, finishing in 18th just one tenth down on his far more experienced team-mate Marcus Ericsson.
