Melbourne: World champion Lewis Hamilton scorched to pole position more than half-a-second faster than team-mate Nico Rosberg as he led a Mercedes one-two at Australian Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday.
Hamilton’s 39th career pole came from a dominating performance, with a sizzling lap time of one minute 26.327 seconds at Melbourne’s Albert Park. It was Hamilton’s fourth pole in Australia as he bids to win for the first time in Melbourne since 2008.
Rosberg, who looked as if he would miss out on the front row after taking to the grass, hit back with a flying 1:26.921 final lap, still six-tenths off his fierce rival. Brazilian Felipe Massa in a Williams was third fastest in 1:27.718, ahead of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel for his new Ferrari team.
Last year Hamilton also started off the pole in Melbourne but was forced out with mechanical problems after just four laps. “It’s a great start to the weekend. We found a good balance today (Saturday) and it was about trying to push those laps,” Hamilton said.
“Last year showed that even though I didn’t win that first race it wasn’t the end of the world.
“But of course the plan tomorrow (Sunday) is to have a better start to the season and today (Saturday) is the first step in that direction.” Rosberg, who went on to win last year’s race, is optimistic about his chances even though he was significantly slower than Hamilton’s best lap.”It’s not because of the pace difference, for sure, Lewis was quick but I didn’t get my laps together today (Saturday),” the German said.
“So I’m not worried about pace at all to be honest. But races are always a different thing so maybe I can even turn it around tomorrow (Sunday).” Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was fifth ahead of Valtteri Bottas in a Williams and Australian Daniel Ricciardo struggled to keep up, finishing seventh in his Red Bull.
Hulkenberg, Perez to begin Australian GP from 14th, 15th spots. As expected, it was not a great result for Sahara Force India in the qualifying session for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix as Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez will start the season-opening race from the 14th and 15th spots respectively.
The Indian team failed to test its new car in the first two pre-season tests.Both Hulkenberg, who clocked a fastest lap of 1:29.208s and Perez who recored best lap of 1:29.209s, faded in Q2.
Perez said it was a difficult qualifying session and the windy conditions seemed to have caused an impact on the car.
“In terms of performance, I think we are where we predicted because we knew Q2 was achievable and we managed to get the maximum from the car. Anything can happen, it’s unpredictable and sometimes you have to be patient. We need to see what the weather is like because the wind and track temperature will play a big part,” the Mexican said. (PTI)
