
The 2019 Formula 1 season has officially got underway with qualifying in Melbourne, and Lewis Hamilton claimed his sixth consecutive pole position at Albert Park, with team-mate Valtteri Bottas qualifying in second place. Sebastian Vettel finished third for Ferrari, whilst Max Verstappen for Red Bull-Honda split the two Ferraris in fourth place, as the other Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc qualified fifth on his debut for the Scuderia. With this pole position, Hamilton was able to equal 2 new records today - that of most consecutive seasons with a pole position (13), equalling the record of Michael Schumacher (who had done so between 1994 and 2006), whilst he also equalled the record for most pole positions at a single track, having achieved his eighth pole position in Melbourne, equalling Ayrton Senna's record in San Marino and Michael Schumacher's record in Japan. In other points of note during the qualifying session, new Red Bull driver Pierre Gasly was eliminated during Q1 after the team did not put him out on track in the final part of Q1 and was as a result bumped down the standings. Lando Norris, making his Formula 1 debut with McLaren, impressed in making it to Q3 and finished up in eighth place - whilst experienced team-mate Carlos Sainz failed to make it even to Q2, and in fact all rookies except Antonio Giovinazzi (although you may not consider him as a rookie given he had already taken part in 2 races prior to this one) out-qualified their team-mates, as Toro Rosso's Alexander Albon out-qualified Daniil Kvyat, whilst down at the very bottom Formula 2 champion George Russell out-qualified Williams team-mate Robert Kubica. In what may be regarded as slightly disappointing for the team, neither Renault driver made it into Q3.
Starting grid: Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-Honda
Charles Leclerc - Ferrari
Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari
Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari
Lando Norris - McLaren-Renault
Kimi Raikkonen - Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari
Sergio Perez - Racing Point BWT-Mercedes
Nico Hulkenberg - Renault
Daniel Ricciardo - Renault
Alexander Albon - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Antonio Giovinazzi - Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari
Daniil Kvyat - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Lance Stroll - Racing Point BWT-Mercedes
Pierre Gasly - Red Bull Racing-Honda
Carlos Sainz - McLaren-Renault
George Russell - Williams-Mercedes
Robert Kubica - Williams-Mercedes