Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position for the Australian Grand Prix finishing 0.112 seconds ahead of teammate Valterri Bottas.
Mercedes went to Australia claiming they were not as fast as Ferrari and although Charles Leclerc topped Q1, the Silver Arrows went on to dominate in Q2 and Q3.
This was Hamilton’s 6th consecutive pole position at Melbourne and a record equalling 8th pole position at a single track.
Speaking of his pole position Hamilton said, “I’m shaking, what a beautiful day and thank you to the crowd for a great atmosphere”
“The team had no idea during testing what we would be up against and they’ve worked so hard in the factory and here this weekend – the team have worked to perfection.”
Bottas had gone fastest on his first run in Q3, lapping nearly half a second faster than Hamilton, however, the Briton found extra pace on his second lap to snatch pole away from his teammate.
Vettel will start third and surprisingly he was seven tenths slower than Hamilton.
Verstappen had a good start for Red Bull and Honda, splitting the Ferrari’s in fourth and Grosjean and Magnussen will line up sixth and seventh respectively for Haas.
Lando Norris had an impressive debut for McLaren qualifying 8th, however, the same could not be said for his teammate Carlos Sainz who had a difficult day and will start 18th.
Pierre Gasly had a nightmare debut for Red Bull and was knocked out in Q1 after a strategy error by the team.
Kimi Raikkonen was able to qualify 9th for Alfa Romeo and Antonio Giovinazzi will line up 14th.
Renault will line up 11th and 12th with Ricciardo just 0.008s slower than his teammate.
Sergio Perez had a strong session for Racing Point and will start 10th tomorrow, however Lance Stroll was compromised by another car and will start 16th.
Torro Rosso had a quiet session but rookie Alexander Albon out-qualified his more experienced teammate Daniel Kvyat and they will start 13th and 15th respectively.
The Williams’ of George Russell and Robert Kubica will line up on the back of the grid in what was another tough day for the Grove based team.
Kubica scraped the wall on his last flying lap in Q1 which gave him a puncture and this compromised a lot of other drivers as a result.
The Australian Grand Prix gets underway tomorrow at 5:10am
