Hamilton demolishes records to take Melbourne pole

Lewis Hamilton will start on pole position for a record seventh time at the Australian Grand Prix after obliterating the lap record at Albert Park. Kimi Raikkonen joins the world champion on the front row of the grid, with Sebastian Vettel only able to qualify third.

Ferrari had looked to be matching Mercedes' pace through the first two sessions, but Hamilton's final flying lap saw him stop the clock at one minute and 21.164 seconds, smashing a record that Vettel had set in Q2 by eight tenths and leading the Ferraris by six tenths of a second.

Hamilton also took the record haul of poles he had shared with Ayrton Senna for his own.

Vettel may well be disappointed at failing to get anywhere Hamilton and beat his team-mate, but the red cars can take heart in their victory over a pole-sitting Hamilton last year.

Just as the action ramped up, Q3 was red flagged after Valtteri Bottas slammed his car into the wall at turn two, causing damage which will keep the Silver Arrows' mechanics busy over Saturday night and could prompt a grid penalty.

????RED FLAG ???? Q3

Heavy impact for Bottas at Turn 2#Quali #AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/yKgWbIfQW9 — Formula 1 (@F1) March 24, 2018

The Red Bull pair will begin Sunday's race on supersoft tyres, having set their best times in Q2 on the red-walled compound, giving Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo the task of stretching out their initial stints.

Verstappen qualified fourth, with Ricciardo going fifth-quickest in Q3, but the Australian will start eighth, having picked up a three-place grid drop for speeding under red flags on Friday.

Haas confirmed their pre-season billing as best of the rest in 2018, with Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean set to start fifth and sixth respectively. Ricciardo will split the Renault pair of Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr.

Q2

We didn't need another reminder how tight the midfield battle is going to be this season, but we got one anyway!

McLaren will have been disappointed not to make it into the top 10, with Renault stealing a march on their engine customers and pitching themselves into a battle with Haas for the 'best of the rest'. It looks like Force India are trapped between the boys at the back and the midfield, a shame after two fourth-place finishes recently.

Q1

"F***, I locked up!" was the lament of Pierre Gasly as his flying lap ended up in the gravel, although his Toro Rosso team-mate Brendon Hartley was also unable to get out of the first section. The Sauber duo Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc went out as expected, with Sergey Sirotkin joining them.