Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton claims 73rd pole in Australia

Lewis Hamilton will start the Formula 1 season in the best possible position—pole position. The reigning F1 champion dominated qualifying in Australia.

After a damp Free Practice 3 session that saw Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel lead a Ferrari 1-2 with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson in P3 for an all-Ferrari powered practice podium, qualifying for the 2018 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix was Lewis Hamilton’s playground, as the Briton led two of the three qualifying sessions. But it was a bittersweet Saturday for Mercedes, as Valtteri Bottas crashed hard in Q3.

Qualifying 1

Qualifying 1 was dry as the track was drying by the end of Free Practice 3. For most of Q1, the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen held P1 with Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo in P2. Mercedes’ Hamilton set the fastest time with a lap at 1:22.824. Both Toro Rosso and Sauber cars were eliminated along with the Williams of Sergey Sirotkin.

Qualifying 2

Qualifying 2 started with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen heading out on Supersoft tires in a potential split strategy for the Milton Keynes outfit. Hamilton started on Ultrasoft tires and immediately put in a lap time of 1:22.051 and pitted to save an extra set of tires.

Mercedes were 1-2 after Bottas got within 0.031 seconds of Hamilton until a late flying lap by Vettel. Vettel’s lap at 1:21.944 was the first sub-1:22 time of the weekend, and it gave the German P1 by a tenth of a second. Both McLaren and Force India cars and the Williams of Lance Stroll were eliminated in Q2.

Qualifying 3

Hamilton was out first followed by Bottas, but as Hamilton began a timed lap, his teammate crashed hard into the wall at turn 2, causing a red flag and a suspended session. Replays showed that Bottas went wide onto the curbs in turn 1 and lost the rear on the curbs into turn 2 on full throttle and into the wall.

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The Finn was uninjured. The crash will require a long repair, potentially breaking parc fermé. The first run after the restart for the Q3 shootout saw Hamilton, Verstappen, and Vettel 1-2-3 and separated by 0.061 seconds.

On the final run, Hamilton put in a massively impressive lap (1:21.164) for pole. It was the track record, and it gave him a record seven pole positions in Australia. Raikkonen beat Vettel for P2 while Vettel will start P3.

Ricciardo qualified P5 but will drop to P8 after his three-spot grid penalty for speeding under red flag conditions in FP2. Haas continued their strong early pace, qualifying P6 and P7. The Renault pair of Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz finished out the top 9 with Bottas unable to continue in P10.

The starting grid for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix

*- Subject to 3-place grid penalty
**- Subject to 5-place grid penalty

Next: Looking back at Lewis Hamilton's record-setting accomplishment

Will starting from pole be advantageous for Lewis Hamilton or will the Ferrari tandem prove to be too much? For Hamilton, his pole positions in Melbourne haven’t led to many wins at Albert Park. Will the seven-tenths of a second advantage in qualifying be enough to make his Sunday drive an easy one? Tune in to the race at 1:10 am ET on ESPN on Sunday, March 25th to find out.