With a remarkable record in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, that Lewis Hamilton extended his run of success with another pole in Melbourne should perhaps not have been entirely unexpected.
Yet his run to his sixth consecutive pole here and the advantage he held over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in third, was such a turnaround on pre-season predictions both he and the German were left expressing their bewilderment as the five-time world champion got his season off to just the start he wanted.
The British driver, who won his fifth world championship last year put in a magnificent lap to to secure pole at Albert Park, and complete what has thus far been a dominant performance in Melbourne. His Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas was in second with the Red Bull of Max Verstappen in fourth.
Ferrari had looked to have the advantage during winter testing, perhaps by as much as three-tenths of a second and Hamilton acknowledged on Thursday that he thought they were ahead.
However when practice began in Australia it quickly became clear that Mercedes had more than narrowed the gap. Hamilton was quickest in both practice sessions on Friday and again on top, two-tenths clear of Vettel, on Saturday.
Albert Park is not a typical circuit and very much an outlier so reading too much into it can be dangerous. However with qualifying the first time this season the cars have genuinely run in comparative conditions, the indications are that once again it is Mercedes who have emerged on the front foot. Vettel was ultimately a full seven-tenths back on Hamilton.
Hamilton was taken aback at his advantage. “It’s a real shocker,” he said. “We kept working away at our pace and balance through the weekend, since Barcelona [testing] we made some really big steps forward and we brought that here and it seemed to have worked. I was not expecting to see the performance difference that we have here.
“It’s difficult when you have a session like that to grasp exactly what happened. This couldn’t be a better way to start the year.”
Vettel admitted he had lacked balance, confidence and trust in his car all weekend, which he clearly enjoyed in spades in Barcelona but was absent on the bumpy surface of Albert Park. He too was shocked at Mercedes’ pace.
“Certainly I am surprised, I think everybody is, probably even Mercedes,” he said. “There is some homework for us to do, I still think we have a great car and we should be better than this. But Mercedes are the clear favourite with such a big gap and comfort through all the sessions.”
It was Bottas who had set the pace on the first hot laps in Q3, putting in a stunner to top the time sheets from Hamilton, who took too much kerb in the first corner, by almost half a second. But Hamilton’s second and final hot lap was peerless, error free this time he hit the perfect line and with a time of 1minute 20.486seconds concluded with panache, a tenth up on the Finn.
In doing so he posted a new track record, beating the time of 1.21.164 he set here last year, positively confirming that the engineers have claimed back all the pace they were expected to lose with the new aerodynamic regulations this season.
Vettel was clearly pushing, as could be seen by the major off he had going wide in Q2 onto the grass through the quick chicane at turns 11 and 12. But he could not extract what he wanted when it mattered.
This is Hamilton’s 84th career pole position and continues the remarkably strong run over the single lap discipline with which he closed out last season. He took eleven poles in 2018 including the last two at Brazil and Abu Dhabi. Hs record at Albert Park is unsurpassed. This is his eighth pole in Melbourne, the most by any driver.
Mercedes are attempting to secure a record sixth consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ championship double, one more than the run Ferrari achieved with Michael Schumacher between 2000 and 2004 and with the car looking immensely strong this is exactly the start they would have wanted.
British Rookie Lando Norris did brilliantly to qualify in eighth place for McLaren on his F1 debut weekend. He was a full three-tenths quicker than his more experienced teammate Carlos Sainz who went out in Q1, in 18th place.
The Haas’s of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen once again had a strong start to the season in sixth and seventh place. Kimi Raikonnen, in the Alfa Romeo was in ninth and Sergio Pérez in tenth for Racing Point.
Renault’s Nico Hülkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo were in 11th and 12th place respectively. Alexander Albon did well for 13th on his F1 debut in the Toro Rosso, out-qualifying his teammate Daniil Kvyat in 15th. Antonio Giovinazzi was in 14th for Alfa Romeo.
Williams, who have endured a torrid start to their season missing days of testing and with a car desperately lacking downforce, proved to be still well off the pace. British rookie George Russell in his debut meeting was in 19th. His teammate Robert Kubica, making a remarkable competitive F1 comeback after his terrible accident in 2011, was in 20th, both were over a second behind their nearest competitors.
Red Bull suffered a setback with their new driver Pierre Gasly going out in Q1 in 17th, while Lance Stroll in the Racing Point was 16th.