Business As Usual

Lewis Hamilton picked up where he left off last season by going 0.594 seconds faster than Nico Rosberg to take pole at the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton had the edge over his team-mate throughout the session and was substantially faster than Rosberg through the first sector. Taking Turn 1 in fourth gear, Hamilton was able to get on the power quicker than Rosberg, who took the corner in third gear. Rosberg had felt the pinch in the first run in the third qualifying period when he ran wide at Turn 15 and later posted a time of 1.26.921 that was unable to dislodge Hamilton from pole position.

Williams showed their strength with Felipe Massa taking third position but his time was 1.391 seconds off the pace and further underlined Mercedes dominance. His team-mate Valteri Bottas was denied a place on the second row when he had a tank slapper after running wide on the last corner. Bottas qualified sixth but will have a medical assessment before the race after suffering back pains half way through the session.

Ferrari backed up their pre-season pace with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen taking fourth and fifth. Daniel Ricciardo took his under-powered Red Bull Renault to seventh and rookie Carlos Sainz Jr. impressed in the Torro Rosso in taking eighth. Lotus put behind their troubles of last year by rounding out the top ten with Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado.

The race to fill the bottom five spots on the grid in Q1 became a battle for the three lowest positions with Manor Marussia staying in the pit garage. 

Honda had decided to turn down their engines for reliability reasons and Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen fought for the ignominious last position on the grid. Button got the edge on his team-mate with a time that was almost four seconds slower than the Mercedes. McLaren have it all to do and can only hope for a 58 lap practice session.

Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber also missed the cut of Q1 and his team-mate Felipe Masr (11th on the grid) can be rest assured they'll be racing this weekend after the team came to an agreement with Guiedo Van de Garde. Van de Garde had earlier given up his claim to race this weekend and it remains to be seen whether Sauber will be willing to race the Dutchman this season.

Max Verstappen in the Torro Rosso qualified ahead of Red Bull's Daniil Kyvat and the Force Indias of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez to round out the grid in Q2.

To recap, the grid for the Australian Grand Prix is:

Hamilton - Rosberg

Massa - Vettel

Raikkonen - Bottas

Ricciardo - Sainz

Grosjean - Maldonado

Nasr - Verstappen

Kvyat - Hulkenberg

Perez - Ericsson

Button - Magnussen

Rosberg will be hoping to make the jump on Hamilton into Turn One but Lewis will have other ideas.