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Lewis Hamilton takes pole position for 2018 Australian GP

Lewis Hamilton. (Photo: Mercedes AMG Petronas)
Roar Guru
24th March, 2018
1

Lewis Hamilton claimed his fifth consecutive Australian Grand Prix pole position and a sixth in his career, following a blistering lap in Q3 which separated the Briton from his nearest rival by over half a second.

It was a bittersweet first qualifying of the year for Mercedes AMG, with Valtteri Bottas having had a tank-slapper at the start of Q3 which had brought out the red flag. Having found the grass upon the exit of Turn 1, the Finn lost control of his car and went into the wall.

Behind Hamilton, it was Kimi Räikkönen who led the Ferrari charge in second place, with only a hundredth of a second separating the Finn from teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Fifth fastest was the maximum for home favourite Daniel Ricciardo, who will now drop to eighth for the race with that three-place grid penalty for driving too slow during the second practice session.

Both Haas and Renault cars started their respective seasons positively, all qualifying inside the top ten. Kevin Magnussen led Romain Grosjean in sixth, whilst Nico Hulkenberg upstaged Carlos Sainz in eighth.

McLaren in their first race with Renault ended up just outside the top ten, with Fernando Alonso just two-tenths off the works Renault’s time in Q2 which had got the latter through to the shootout. Stoffel Vandoorne was just behind his teammate.

Lance Stroll for Williams plugged in an impressive final lap in Q1 to get himself out of the bottom five and was able to split the two Force Indias in fourteenth.

The Canadian teenager’s teammate in Sergey Sirotkin had showed early promise in his maiden Formula One qualifying, however ended the session in nineteenth.

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Bringing up the rear will be Pierre Gasly, who made a trip through the gravel in his final attempt to set a fast lap during Q1 and ruined his chances of out-qualifying teammate Brendon Hartley, who was sixteenth and ahead of the Saubers.

Along with Ricciardo’s penalty, there is the looming chance of Bottas to be hit with a penalty as well for a change of gearbox – should the one involved in the crash is unsalvageable for the race.

A five-place grid drop is still the sanction for an unscheduled change of gearbox, which would be the last thing Mercedes AMG want to contemplate, having a lengthy repair ahead of them.

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