Lewis Hamilton storms to his 6th straight pole position on the streets of Melbourne ahead of tomorrows season opener at Albert Park.
Lewis Hamilton posted the lap record in Melbourne with a 1m 20.486s. Hamilton left it all on track ‘Down Under’ as he beat his team-mate Valterri Bottas by only 0.112s of a second.
BREAKING: @LewisHamilton takes pole in Melbourne, edging out team-mate @ValtteriBottas in an absolute thriller! #AusGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/l1xk46diUE
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 16, 2019
Ferrari head into tomorrow with a sour taste in their mouths after a strong showing in testing was overturned in Australia by the Silver Arrows. The Scuderia finished qualifying in only 3rd and 5th position.
Sebastian Vettel ended the session 0.704s away from Hamilton’s pole lap with his team-mate Charles Leclerc just over two tenths of a second behind.
During an interview after qualifying Vettel said: “Not worried too much but for sure it’s not great. Of course we can (win the race) and the race is over when there is the chequered flag. Mercedes are the clear favourites, but we are here to race so we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
The German added: “This track is very specific, so I’m not worried too much – but of course I’d prefer it to be the other way around.”
Max Verstappen split both Ferrari’s to take 4th with a 1:21.320s while his team-mate Pierre Gasly will start in 17th after Red Bull misjudged the track evolution, leaving him in the garage.
Romain Grosjean was a strong sixth, the Frenchman within half a second of Charles Leclerc’s time and one position ahead of his team-mate Kevin Magnussen who crossed the line in 7th.
Tomorrow Haas will be hoping to avoid a repeat of 2018 when they retired from 5th and 6th in the race after not attaching the wheels properly during their pit stops.
Lando Norris pulled out a stellar performance qualifying in 8th place on his debut.
His team-mate Carlos Sainz was knocked out in Q1 after getting caught up in Robert Kubica’s incident meaning he could not improve on his lap.
Kimi Raikonnen and Sergio Perez finished the session in 9th and 10th respectively while their team-mates lingered down in 14th and 16th.
Eliminated at the end of Q2 were both Renaults, with Nico Hulkenberg in P11 ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo with only 0.012s of a second separating both of them.
Toro Rosso rookie Alex Albon finished 13th just ahead of Giovinazzi and the second Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat.
Williams really struggled finishing 19th and 20th as expected, being 1.3s off the next fastest car of Carlos Sainz Jr.
There are still a lot of question marks over the true pecking order as Albert Park isn’t as representative as the other permanent tracks we go to during the season.
The grid is set for the first race of the 2019 season tomorrow at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne. Will Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes run away with it or will Ferrari and Red Bull have the pace to cause an upset?
Tune in tomorrow for lights out at 5:10 GMT!
