Lewis Hamilton stormed to a record-equaling sixth pole position at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit as he confirmed the Mercedes team is still well and truly on the pace this year.
Hamilton’s 62nd career pole position time of 1:22.188 was almost two seconds faster that his pole position time from last year and the quickest ever lap around the Albert Park Circuit. We were quoted lap times in the region of three to four seconds quicker than previous years due to the wider tires and advanced aerodynamics present on the 2017 cars. Even though this didn’t materialize, it was nevertheless a very impressive lap from the three-time World Champion.
Hamilton’s achievement wasn’t easy as he was challenged closely by his team mate Valtteri Bottas and the ever-present threat of the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Both Vettel and Bottas were quicker than Hamilton in Free Practice 3 (where the teams simulate their qualifying runs) on Saturday morning, with Finnish driver Bottas also besting him in the second part of Qualifying. Thus, the level of excitement was high going into Qualifying 3.
But when it really mattered in the third and final part of Qualifying, Hamilton took pole by an unexpectedly large margin of almost three tenths of a second from Vettel’s Ferrari. Hamilton’s pole advantage of three tenths doesn’t seem much, but in the world of Formula One, fine margins can make all the difference. Lewis had been reiterating on multiple occasions coming into the weekend that Ferrari were the favorites. But after Free Practice on Friday, he admitted that Mercedes had found an advantage over the two week break between Winter Testing and arriving in Australia.
Ferrari showed very good form in Winter Testing earlier this month but throughout the Free Practice sessions on Friday in Melbourne, its pace seemed to lack slightly. Nevertheless, the general feeling heading into Qualifying was that Ferrari would still be very capable of challenging Mercedes for pole position.
However, Ferrari did find a crumb of comfort in that Vettel out-qualified Hamilton’s Mercedes team mate Bottas, who could only manage third on the grid. There were only a couple of hundredths between the two drivers, but the difference between Vettel starting on the first row of the grid compared to the second for Bottas could pay dividends in the race tomorrow.
Vettel’s achievement of second place in Qualifying means that this is the first time since Singapore 2015 that a Ferrari has started on the front row. Ferrari is renowned for its superior start system that has gifted its drivers some stellar starts over the last few years, including last year in Australia. Mercedes, meanwhile, was plagued throughout last season with poor getaways from the grid. This will be more important than ever for tomorrow as Vettel will have a great chance to out-drag Hamilton on the run down to Turn 1.
Having said that, the clutch systems on the cars are new for this year and the start procedures the drivers are used to have changed. There is now a smaller window to find the bite point of the clutch, meaning that the starts of the races in 2017 will be a lot more variable than we have seen in recent years. Could this mean the fast-starting Ferraris have been slightly suppressed? Or have Mercedes found a better solution than what they were troubled with last year? The first few hundred meters of the race tomorrow should be very interesting.
Home favorite Daniel Ricciardo had a miserable end to his qualifying session as he spun off towards the end of his first run in Q3, severely damaging the rear end of his Red Bull. Rain was in the air for the whole of the qualifying session but it’s understood that this did not play a factor in the incident. The rear of a Formula One car is where the gearbox is situated and if it needs to be changed due to the damage sustained from the impact with the tire barrier, a five-place grid drop could be on the cards. The Australian ace could have a lot of work to do tomorrow.
Further down the grid, a great performance from Romain Grosjean in the Haas carried on his fine form from the Australian Grand Prix a year ago. He put himself sixth on the grid as the “best of the rest”. The two Toro Rosso drivers also made a welcome appearance in Q3 for the first time since Mexico last year as they rounded out the top ten.
A so-so weekend so far for the McLaren-Hondas as they finished the Qualifying session in 13th and 18th positions respectively. Two weeks removed from their dismal performance in Winter Testing, many expected them to spend most of the time in the garage. However, the cars surprisingly ran without much trouble in Free Practice yesterday and Alonso’s starting position of 13th at least provides some solace for the team, especially if Daniel Ricciardo has to take a grid penalty.
At the back, new boy Lance Stroll collided with the concrete wall in the first part of qualifying, effectively putting an end to his chances of a strong debut for Williams. After heavily crashing out in FP2 on Friday, Jolyon Palmer struggled with his Renault throughout Qualifying, describing it as “terrible”. His race could be of equal sort tomorrow as he starts from the foot of the grid.
News broke this morning that Sauber’s Pascal Wherlein has pulled out of the Australian Grand Prix due to back injuries he sustained in a crash at the Race of Champions back in January. Sauber reserve driver and former GP2 race winner Antonio Giovinazzi therefore took his place for the rest of the weekend. Giovinazzi had to contend with very little running in the C36 before Qualifying but managed to take the car to a respectable 16th place on the grid, only two tenths behind his experienced Swedish team mate Marcus Ericsson.
Here are the final times for Qualifying for the Formula 1 2017 Rolex Australian Grand Prix. Please note that any grid drops due to penalties sustained have not been taken into account.
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:24.191 | 1:23.251 | 1:22.188 | |
| 2 | 1:25.210 | 1:23.401 | 1:22.456 | |
| 3 | 1:24.514 | 1:23.215 | 1:22.481 | |
| 4 | 1:24.352 | 1:23.376 | 1:23.033 | |
| 5 | 1:24.482 | 1:24.092 | 1:23.485 | |
| 6 | 1:25.419 | 1:24.718 | 1:24.074 | |
| 7 | 1:25.099 | 1:24.597 | 1:24.443 | |
| 8 | 1:25.542 | 1:24.997 | 1:24.487 | |
| 9 | 1:25.970 | 1:24.864 | 1:24.512 | |
| 10 | 1:25.383 | 1:23.989 | DNF | |
| 11 | 1:25.064 | 1:25.081 | ||
| 12 | 1:24.975 | 1:25.091 | ||
| 13 | 1:25.872 | 1:25.425 | ||
| 14 | 1:26.009 | 1:25.568 | ||
| 15 | 1:26.236 | 1:26.465 | ||
| 16 | 1:26.419 | |||
| 17 | 1:26.847 | |||
| 18 | 1:26.858 | |||
| 19 | 1:27.143 | |||
| 20 | 1:28.244 |
We previewed all of the cars for the 2017 Formula One season. You can check out part 1 and part 2 if you need to catch up as we begin another season.
If you fancy giving it a go yourself, F1 2016 includes all of the cars, tracks, drivers and teams from the 2016 Formula 1 season. It’s available now on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
See more articles on Australian Grand Prix, F1 2017 Season, and Lewis Hamilton.