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Mercedes driver, Lewis Hamilton, has taken pole position for the Australian Grand Prix, setting a blistering time in qualifying to smash his rivals.
After topping all three practice sessions in Melbourne, Mercedes continued that form in qualifying, dominating their opponents in the session to take pole.
Hamilton, who set a time of 1:26.419, was 1.3 seconds quicker than any other team in the paddock.
He was also over half a second quicker than his team-mate, Nico Rosberg, who set a time of 1:26.921 to take second on the grid.
Rounding out the top 3 was Felipe Massa who recovered from a water leak yesterday to set a time of 1:27.718.
Ferrari would wrap up the top five as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen showed form in their Prancing Horse machinery.
Australia’s Dan Ricciardo would finish seventh in the session but it could have been a whole lot worse for the Red Bull driver.
A brake problem in practice 3 ruined his chance of setting laps in the session.
By the time the problem was fixed, he only had time to further set up the car for the race.
They had not even used a set of soft tyres for the duration of the weekend.
In qualifying, Red Bull entered the unknown.
They didn’t know how quick they were, and also didn’t know if they could utilise the soft tyres to set fast times, and get into the top ten.
Up stepped Dan Ricciardo, one of the best drivers in the paddock.
The Australian fought hard in qualifying 1 and 2 to get inside the top ten for the final session.
He would then set a time of 1:28.329 in the final session to steal seventh and have a solid starting position for the race.
Ricciardo conceded that was the best he could do.
“Qualifying was our first session where we had a full hour in the car,” the Australian told Channel Ten.
“It was a step in the right direction this afternoon. Seventh is good today but we won’t rest on that result. We want more tomorrow,” he concluded.
Carlos Sainz, on debut, finished 8th in his Toro Rosso with the Lotuses of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado finishing 9th and 10th respectively.
Sauber, after all the drama during the week, almost stole a position in the top ten with Felipe Nasr finishing 11th.
At the other end of the grid, McLaren had a day to forget, as their Honda’s finished 17th and 18th in the session.
They will start tomorrow dead last after Manor Racing failed to feature in qualifying.
The team will now be out of the race tomorrow and the grid now falls from 20 to 18.
Tomorrow looks to be a race dominated by the Mercedes based on their pace so far this weekend.
Having said that, one of them did fail to finish last year, and tomorrow’s race looks to be another one high on attrition.
How that affects the race outcome will be interesting.
Full coverage of all the drama will be on the Roar tomorrow.
Mercedes will be looking to continue their practice form into qualifying today for the Australian F1 Grand Prix at Albert Park. Join The Roar for a live blog of racing from Melbourne from 12:00pm AEDT.
On the track yesterday, most things ran status quo, as the leading contenders showed their form on the opening day.
Mercedes, in particular, showed why they are again the team to beat in 2015. Nico Rosberg took both sessions with fellow Mercedes driver, Lewis Hamilton, finishing second for the Silver Arrows team.
Ferrari, who showed pace in preseason testing, finished next best after the Mercedes with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the top four in times.
These two teams had good days on the opening day of the season. For others it became a nightmare.
Australia’s Dan Ricciardo was one of them after having an engine change in his Red Bull in Practice 2. He finished 10th in Practice 1 and looked behind the pace compared to the others.
His day today will be all about coming back into contention.
Fellow contenders, Williams, also had problems with Felipe Massa forced out of Practice 2 with a water leak to his car.
During the practice session itself, other drivers also ran into trouble. Kevin Magnussen, in the debut of the new McLaren Honda, crashed out of the session by hitting the turn six tyre barrier after 17 minutes.
Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado, in their Lotuses, also ran into problems with a spin and loss of power respectively in the session.
While these drivers, and cars, had trouble on and around the track, others didn’t even get started.
Manor Racing, who fought extremely hard to be here after administration in 2014, failed to complete a lap with software problems to each car.
They will be lucky to be within the 107% time required to compete in the race.
Another team, Sauber, stole the day and the headlines. As I write this piece on Friday night the issue with Geido van der Garde has not been resolved after another day in the court.
After van der Garde won his court case to drive for Sauber, and the team failed to appeal the decision, we spent another day in court as van der Garde had no super license to drive the car.
What happened this morning was nothing short of farcical. Van der Garde went to Albert Park, was fitted into the car, and then told he couldn’t drive because he didn’t have a super license.
His lawyer then filed to the Supreme Court for a contempt of court charge against Sauber, arguing that the team was blocking the super license attempt of his client.
Sauber argued in return that they lawfully ended his contract on Thursday night. With no agreement between the two parties, van der Garde then took the drastic action of asking the court to freeze Sauber’s assets, including the two F1 cars.
While the judge did not approve of that he told the two parties to sort it out on Friday night or they will all be back at court at 9:30 this morning.
Justice Clyde Croft said that if it comes to that he will make a decision that severely punishes one side.
That side looks to be Sauber with bailiffs waiting at Albert Park today ready to take the assets off the team if they get the order.
This hampered the team severely and they only managed to come out for Practice 2 during yesterday’s sessions.
Felipe Nasr, on his debut, was 11th fastest.
Predicting what will happen today is anyone’s guess. Any update on Saubergate will be provided in the blog.
Today sees one more practice session at 2pm, before qualifying begins at 5pm.
I predict a Mercedes pole position for the race.
Saturday also sees the third V8 Supercar race and the second race in the Porsche Carerra Cup.
Yesterday saw Mark Winterbottom win both races for Ford as he broke New Zealand’s run of nine straight wins at Albert Park.
In the Carrera Cup, Nick McBride won his first ever race in the series, as he held off a fast finishing Steven Richards.
Both races today will be included in The Roar’s coverage.
If yesterday is anything to go by, today promises to be another day full of drama, action, and racing.
Join The Roar as we cover the Australian Grand Prix.
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