
Drivers (L to R): Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes - 3rd place), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes - pole position), Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari - 2nd place)
(L to R) = Left to Right
Lewis Hamilton has qualified on pole position for the 2017 Australian Grand Prix, beating Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel by just two-and-a-half tenths of a second, making it Hamilton's 62nd career pole position, just 6 behind the record holder Michael Schumacher (Schumacher achieved 68 pole positions in his career).
In Q1, Lance Stroll, Stoffel Vandoorne, Jolyon Palmer, Kevin Magnussen and Antonio Giovinazzi. Antonio Giovinazzi is stepping in at Sauber for German driver Pascal Wehrlein, and did an impressive job of qualifying in 16th place, beating the likes of the experienced Kevin Magnussen as well as a more experienced Jolyon Palmer, considering that he was called in at the last minute, and he ran team-mate Marcus Ericsson very close. Ericsson just pushed Giovinazzi down to 16th place in his final run, and beat him by just under two-tenths of a second. Vandoorne also encountered a fuel pressure issue during the session, which cost him some time.
In Q2, Marcus Ericsson, Esteban Ocon, Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez were the drivers eliminated. All the drivers who qualified to Q3 will be starting the race tomorrow on the ultrasoft tyres.
Then Q3 came. After the first run, Hamilton was ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who was ahead of Valtteri Bottas who was ahead of Finnish compatriot Kimi Raikkonen. In his flying lap, however Daniel Ricciardo, the local fans' favourite, lost control of the rear of the car and spun into the barriers, signficantly damaging the rear of his car, and therefore did not set a laptime in Q3, so will start 10th on the grid, however if the damage may have caused problems to the gearbox, a gearbox change may be required, in which case he would take a 5-place grid penalty. This prompted the session to be red-flagged, in order to remove the Red Bull car, as well as to clear up the debris. The session resumed at 08:00 CET, therefore the red flag lasted approximately 8 minutes. As soon as the session restarted, Romain Grosjean of the Haas team went out on track to set a laptime, and he set a 1:24.074, which was good enough to put him in 6th place. Afterwards, the front runners went out for their second run. Lewis Hamilton improved on his initial lap time, and set a 1:22.188, which was fast enough for pole position. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas improved his time and set a 1:22.481, which had put him up into second place, however, he got pipped to second by Vettel (of Ferrari), who set a 1:22.456, just three and a half hundredths faster. Kimi Raikkonen qualified 4th, setting a 1:23.033, whilst Max Verstappen was 5th fastest for Red Bull, a 1:23.485. The last 4 drivers (Grosjean qualified 6th as mentioned above) were (in order): Felipe Massa of Williams, Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso with teammate Daniil Kvyat just behind him, and Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull as he failed to set a lap time during Q3 after his crash.
Qualifying classification:
Lewis Hamilton - 1:24.191 (Q1) 1:23.251 (Q2) 1:22.188 (Q3)
Sebastian Vettel - 1:25.210 (Q1) 1:23.401 (Q2) 1:22.456 (Q3)
Valtteri Bottas - 1:24.514 (Q1) 1:23.215 (Q2) 1:22.481 (Q3)
Kimi Raikkonen - 1:24.352 (Q1) 1:23.376 (Q2) 1:23.033 (Q3)
Max Verstappen - 1:24.482 (Q1) 1:24.092 (Q2) 1:23.485 (Q3)
Romain Grosjean - 1:25.419 (Q1) 1:24.718 (Q2) 1:24.074 (Q3)
Felipe Massa - 1:25.099 (Q1) 1:24.597 (Q2) 1:24.443 (Q3)
Carlos Sainz - 1:25.542 (Q1) 1:24.997 (Q2) 1:24.487 (Q3)
Daniil Kvyat - 1:25.970 (Q1) 1:24.864 (Q2) 1:24.512 (Q3)
Daniel Ricciardo - 1:25.383 (Q1) 1:23.989 (Q2) No time in Q3
Sergio Perez - 1:25.064 (Q1) 1:25.081 (Q2)
Nico Hulkenberg - 1:24.975 (Q1) 1:25.091 (Q2)
Fernando Alonso - 1:25.872 (Q1) 1:25.425 (Q2)
Esteban Ocon - 1:26.009 (Q1) 1:25.568 (Q2)
Marcus Ericsson - 1:26.236 (Q1) 1:26.465 (Q2)
Antonio Giovinazzi - 1:26.419 (Q1)
Kevin Magnussen - 1:26.847 (Q1)
Stoffel Vandoorne - 1:26.858 (Q1)
Lance Stroll - 1:27.143 (Q1)
Jolyon Palmer - 1:28.244 (Q1)
Note: Lance Stroll will be starting in 20th place due to a 5-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.