Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole position for the season-opening Australian GP after blowing away his rivals with a blistering final lap in qualifying.
In a stunning demonstration of his skills, Hamilton improved by eight tenths of a second on his last lap to leave Red Bull and Ferrari trailing in his wake and over half a second behind.
Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel then exchanged sharp barbs in the post-session press conference with the Mercedes driver telling his Ferrari rival he wanted to “wipe the smile off your face”.
Listen to the tense exchange between Vettel and Hamilton after qualifying
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Kimi Raikkonen will line up alongside Hamilton on the front row with Vettel third and Max Verstappen fourth for Red Bull.
But after losing control of his Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas crashed out at the start of Q3 with the extensive damage to the car set to trigger a grid penalty.
Valtteri Bottas crashes out of qualifying in Australia
In a fascinating first qualifying session of 2018:
* Bottas was unhurt in his crash at Turn Two but will start 15th due to an enforced gearbox change to his wrecked W09.
* Red Bull ran a different tyre strategy to Mercedes and Ferrari in a bid to out-last their frontrunning rivals in the first stint of Sunday’s grand prix.
* Neither McLaren driver made it through to the top ten with Alonso 11th and Vandoorne 12th.
* But both Renault and Haas cars reached the top ten in their battle to be ‘the best of the rest’.
* Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin was second-last and eliminated in the first segment of Qualy alongside both Toro Rosso-Hondas and Saubers.
Australian GP grid in full
Watch Bottas crash out of qualifying
Hamilton makes all the difference
After their opening laps in Q3, hopes of a close fight between Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull looked poised to be realised with Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen separated by less than a tenth.
But in an ominous and astonishing turn of speed in the final moments of qualifying, Hamilton went into overdrive and delivered an improvement worth nearly a second of lap time to leave his rivals distant and bewildered.
“This was a Lewis Hamilton lap,” said an admiring Nico Rosberg on Sky F1. “When he’s in this form the rest may as well pack up and go because there’s no one who’s going to beat him.
“That looked extremely special.”
It was Hamilton’s seventh pole position at Albert Park although the Mercedes driver may not want to dwell on the statistic that only twice in the last eight years has the pole-sitter won the race.
Vettel admitted he made a mistake at Turn 13 on his final lap while Verstappen also ran wide on his last attempt to topple Hamilton.
But Ferrari remain confident their long-run form will offer Mercedes a more competitive fight on Sunday while Verstappen will start the race on the slower but more durable supersoft tyres after Red Bull opted to roll the dice on strategy.
Ricciardo fumes over grid penalty
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was fifth quickest but will line up just eighth after his controversial grid penalty for running too quickly under red flag conditions in Friday practice.
“They could have given a reprimand, they could have given something [else],” a fuming Ricciardo told Sky Sports. “To give me a grid penalty before the season has started is ****house.”
McLaren behind Renault and Haas
While McLaren fell short of their targeted position in the top ten, Fernando Alonso expressed himself satisfied after qualifying eleventh and within a tenth of Q3.
“It’s what we deserve and I’m happy with it,” said Alonso. “We have huge potential to unlock in the car.
“It’s going to be a different race for us – more in attacking mode and it’s going to be fun. Especially if it rains tomorrow, it’s going to be amazing for the show.”
Alonso has stressed this weekend that he expects this to be McLaren’s weakest race of the season as the team continue to adapt to their new engine partnership with Renault.
Haas made good on their promise in winter testing by out-pacing the Renault works outfit to sixth and seventh, although both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean will be promoted ahead of Ricciardo.
At the other end of the grid, Toro Rosso-Honda disappointed as Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly fell at the first hurdle. Sergey Sirotkin also under-performed as the Russian rookie, who struggled throughout winter testing, limped to 19th on the grid for Williams.
Australian GP grid
| Driver | Team | Time |
| 1. Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:21.164 |
| 2. Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:21.828 |
| 3. Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:21.838 |
| 4. Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:21.879 |
| 5. Daniel Ricciardo * | Red Bull | 1:22.152 |
| 6. Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:23.187 |
| 7. Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:23.339 |
| 8. Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1:23.532 |
| 9. Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1:23.577 |
| 10. Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | No time set |
| Out in Q2 | ||
| 11. Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:23.692 |
| 12. Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1:23.853 |
| 13. Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:24.005 |
| 14. Lance Stroll | Williams | 1:24.230 |
| 15. Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1:24.786 |
| Out in Q1 | ||
| 16. Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 1:24.532 |
| 17. Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:24.556 |
| 18. Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 1:24.636 |
| 19. Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 1:24.922 |
| 20. Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1:25.295 |
| * Ricciardo will be demoted three places |
Watch the F1 2018 season-opening Australian GP exclusively live on Sky Sports F1 from March 23-25. Sky Sports F1 is the only place to watch every Formula 1 Grand Prix, qualifying and practice session live in 2018. Get Sky Sports F1.
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