Reigning Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton got his title defence off to a perfect start with pole position in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver edged his team-mate Nico Rosberg by almost six tenths of a second. His first flying lap was solid. One minute, 26.419 seconds was enough for provisional pole and that affect Rosberg, who ran wide onto grass at the penultimate corner.
The 2008 and 2014 champion improved by just under a tenth on his final Q3 run to apply further pressure on Rosberg. The time? One minute, 26.327 seconds. Earning Hamilton his 39th career pole.
Felipe Massa claimed third on the grid for Williams, edging out the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel by just 0.039 seconds on his final run.
The Scuderia looked to have an advantage over Williams in the early stages of qualifying, but Massa found a crucial improvement at the end.
Kimi Raikkonen made it a Ferrari top five, lapping on the same tenth as Vettel and Massa, while the Williams of Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top six.
Bottas looked strong through the early stages in the session, but struggled with the brakes on his FW37 in Q3 and wound up over three tenths slower than his team-mate.
Home crowd favourite Daniel Ricciardo recovered from a pooe set of practice sessions to grab seventh spot on the grid, ahead of Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz and the Lotus E23s of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado, which completed the top ten.
Sauber’s Felipe Nasr fell less than a tenth shy of beating Maldonado into the top ten shootout, on what has been a miserable weekend off-track for the team, but the Brazilian’s best lap was good enough for P11 on the grid.
Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen looked a genuine Q3 contender early on, but complained of some discomfort in the cockpit of his STR10 in Q2 and suffered a “big moment” at Turn 5 on his final flying lap, which was only good enough for P12.
Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat couldn’t recover sufficiently from a difficult final free practice session to make to Q3. The Russian wound up a lowly P13, two tenths clear of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez.
The Force India team-mates were separated by just 0.001 seconds as both VJM08s dropped out in Q2.
Manor GP failed to get its cars running in time for qualifying, meaning only three of the remaining entries could be eliminated in Q1.
After troubles in pre-season testing, McLaren-Honda faced an uphill struggle in Melbourne. Qualifying revealed the full result with Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen knocked out in Q1.
Button managed to lap within 0.046 seconds of Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber, which was the other victim of the Q1 cut-off.
However, the Swede lapped almost a full second slower than his team-mate Nasr, who was the slowest of the drivers to make it through to Q2.
So a fantastic start by Mercedes. Strongest car with so much speed advantage. Williams and Ferrari are the closest challengers. Should be an exciting race at Albert Park come race day.
Qualifying positions, Australian Grand Prix:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m26.327s
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m26.921s
3 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m27.718s
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m27.757s
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m27.790s
6 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m28.087s
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m28.329s
8 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso-Renault 1m28.510s
9 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1m28.560s
10 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1m29.480s
11 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1m28.800s
12 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 1m28.868s
13 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1m29.070s
14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m29.208s
15 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m29.209s
16 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1m31.376s
17 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1m31.422s
18 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Honda 1m32.037s
Lewis Hamilton is a happy man, but Mercedes’ rivals are already despairing at a performance gap that is even bigger than last year, accoring to Felipe Massa.
Early season dominance was expected for Mercedes after their seamless winter testing but Formula One fans had hoped at least to see the chasing pack close the gap to the champions.
Those hopes were blown away on a windy Saturday at Albert Park where Lewis Hamilton stormed to a dominant pole position in qualifying for the opening Australian Grand Prix.
“I feel incredibly blessed to have this car,” Hamilton said.
“Last year showed that even if I didn’t have a good first race it wasn’t the end of the world.”
The double world champion will be joined again on the front row for Sunday’s race by Nico Rosberg, a sight all-too-familiar from last year when the ‘Silver Arrows’ hogged 18 out of 19 poles and took 16 of 19 wins.
While Hamilton’s lap was nearly six-tenths of a second ahead of a disappointed Rosberg, the one-and-a-half second gap to the third-fastest, Felipe Massa, was truly cavernous.
“It is (a bigger gap than last year),” the Williams driver told reporters.
“For sure, it’s not great to see this difference but we keep working, keep fighting.”
Hamilton’s pole was his 39th and Mercedes’ 12th in succession. Williams’ record of 24 consecutive poles may be in peril.
Victory on Sunday would appear a formality, with perhaps the only suspense reserved for whether Rosberg can provide a genuine challenge.
Hamilton set the early marker during the final phase of qualifying but roared through his last lap to beat the time.
The Briton also started on pole last year but suffered a reliability problem and retired from the race as Rosberg enjoyed a fuss-free run to victory.
It wasn’t all smiles at Mercedes with Rosberg, whose championship battle with Hamilton last year turned volatile at times, left deflated by his day.
He took a spin into the grass in the final session of qualifying after complaining of an engine cut-out in the second.
He denied any problem with his car or that he was any less endowed with pace than Hamilton.
“It wasn’t a great day today but of course I’m really thankful to the team for the car they’ve given me. It’s unbelievable,” said the German.
“For sure Lewis is quick but I didn’t get my laps together today so I’m not worried about pace at all, to be honest.
“I’ll definitely give it everything and hopefully put on a good show for everyone.”
Source: Reuters
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg says he’s as fast as his team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Autosport.com has the story.
Nico Rosberg says the large gap to Lewis Hamilton in Australian Grand Prix qualifying was due to mistakes and he believes he can match his Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate’s pace.
Reigning F1 world champion Hamilton claimed pole by 0.594 seconds in Melbourne, as Mercedes again proved comfortably clear of its opposition.
“First of all Lewis was on impressive form today, he did an awesome job and nailed it all the time,” said Rosberg, who went off onto the grass on his first Q3 flying lap so only had one pole shot.
“The speed was there, I just didn’t get it together today. I’m not worried about pace at all, to be honest.
“In the long runs, my pace was very strong so hopefully it can be the other way around tomorrow.”
“P2, I have to live with that today. It’s still a long day tomorrow.”
He had no complaints about his Mercedes’ set-up as the strong winds caused problems elsewhere.
“It really has a big impact on the car so we all had to adapt again to it so that’s why it was particularly difficult out there,” said Rosberg.
“But my balance was good and the car was really good.”
Hamilton described his dominant performance as “a big rush”.
“Today we found a good balance and today was about pushing those laps,” he said.
“It is so much fun when you get into qualifying. I’m massively grateful for all the work that has gone in.”
After retiring early from last year’s Australian GP, Hamilton said he hopes for a smoother start to his title defence but equally knows from 2014 that an initial deficit can be overcome.
“It is not that it isn’t important, but last year I didn’t have a good first race and it wasn’t the end of the world,” he said.
“The plan tomorrow is to have a better start to the season.”
Williams racer Felipe Massa has commented that the Mercedes team are untouchable, so will fight against Ferrari in the race. News report provided by Reuters.
Felipe Massa will start Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix right behind the Mercedes cars but the Brazilian had few illusions about his Williams team’s chances of winning the season opener.
Third fastest in qualifying, Massa’s best lap was nearly one-and-a-half seconds shy of Formula One champion pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton and nearly a second adrift of the Briton’s team mate Nico Rosberg.
Given that Williams are powered by Mercedes, Massa could only shrug and laugh when asked the awkward question as to where the difference lay between the teams’ performance.
“If it’s the same engine, the difference should be in the car,” he said, raising chuckles at the post-qualifying media conference.
“I hope we have the same engine. I believe we have the same engine. So it’s the car!”
Massa’s team mate Valtteri Bottas qualified sixth behind the Ferraris, but the Finn suffered back pain during the sessions and was taken to hospital for checks.
Though Bottas may be uncertain for the race, Williams performance boss Rob Smedley saw promise in their showing after an encouraging winter testing.
“Reasonably happy with that. To get the first one out of the way and be in a reasonable position,” he said.
“Felipe’s done a great lap, he’s put it all together. And the good thing is there’s still margin there, he could have gone quicker again. We were just learning in these conditions through the qualifying.
“We are here to win, but being realistic that gap is very big to Mercedes. So that’s the one (the gap) I’m looking at. What happens behind is of interest, but it’s of less interest.”
Ferrari, Massa’s former team, was foremost in the Brazilian’s mind however.
“We see the difference in the lap-times between me, Sebastian (Vettel) and Kimi (Raikkonen) and also Valtteri, it’s pretty small,” he said.
“It won’t be easy fighting with Ferrari but we are there. We are really looking forward that both (our) cars can start the season well.”
Red Bull were not in the same league, Massa added.
Daniel Ricciardo, who qualified seventh, complained of reliability problems all day while Daniil Kvyat could manage only 13th after a gearbox problem.
“I think Red Bull is not really there for the moment,” Massa said. “I’m sure Red Bull will get there because they are really strong.
“But for the moment Ferrari is really strong and made a big step forward compared to last year.”
This was a very difficult qualifying session for McLaren and the 2009 world champion Jenson Button admitted started on the back row was not a surprise considering a troubled pre-season testing. Autosport.com has the details.
Jenson Button is not shocked that his McLaren-Honda Formula 1 team ended up qualifying on the back row for the Australian Grand Prix.
The 2009 F1 world champion and his team-mate Kevin Magnussen have endured a difficult weekend in Melbourne, and things did not improve in qualifying.
With Manor not running and McLaren slower than every other team in 17th and 18th, the squad ended up with its worst qualifying performance since the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix – when mixed weather conditions left Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate row of the grid.
Following a tough pre-season testing programme, Button confessed that he had been braced for a hard time in Australia.
“You have to look at winter testing,” he said. “We ran low fuel in winter testing and super-soft tyres and we were not quick.
“So we knew it was going to be difficult, so there was no real shock when we were on the back.”
Magnussen was similarly unsurprised, but like Button added that the car itself does not feel terrible to drive.
“I don’t think it was difficult, we’re not fast enough,” he said. “The car feels good. The aerodynamics feel good. It’s better than last year.
“Honda is doing a great job, they are just behind as they came in after everyone else.
“The morale in the team is good.”
Button says that the race is likely to be even more difficult than qualifying for McLaren.
He revealed that the longest distance he has done so far with the new Honda-powered car is 12 laps.
“It is going to be a big learning day for us,” he said. “Would I rather be in a car that is maximised and just in the points, or would I rather be where we are?
“I would rather be where we are – knowing there is a lot to come and finetuning that car, or moulding that car, into something that can be very good in the future.
“It will be a tough day tomorrow, a big learning curve – the longest run we have done is 12 laps.
“It is all new, but hopefully we can react well.”
Home crowd favourite Daniel Ricciardo was left feeling relieved after qualifying his Red Bull in seventh position. Article provided by Reuters.
Daniel Ricciardo unleashed a blistering final lap on Saturday to end a frustrating 24 hours with a glimmer of hope and seventh place on the starting grid for his home Australian Grand Prix.
Exasperated after everything had seemed to be going against him, the Red Bull driver saved his best for last and whipped around the Melbourne track in one minute 28.329 seconds.
The Australian was still two seconds behind double world champion Lewis Hamilton, who snatched pole position for a Mercedes team that looks to have Sunday’s race at their mercy, but relieved after fearing he might start further back.
“I’m happy now. Or happier. It’s only seventh but how the weekend has been going, I think we’ve got to be really happy with that,” he said.
“Qualifying was the first time I got to use a soft tyre this weekend and we chipped away at it. That’s what I was most pleased about, the progress we made through the session. So that’s promising.”
Ricciardo, third in last year’s championship and the only non-Mercedes driver to win a race, had endured a rotten start to the weekend.
He missed Friday’s final practice session after a power unit failure, leaving him with only three to last the rest of the season without incurring a penalty.
He also lost more valuable time on Saturday when the car stalled after leaving pit lane.
“It has been tricky, definitely. We suffered a bit this time last year but we’re probably having a few more issues this year which I guess weren’t expected,” said the Australian, now the main man at Red Bull following quadruple champion Sebastian Vettel’s departure for Ferrari.
“It’s like that for now and we’ve got to try and sort it out. A little bit of whiplash here and there but it’s alright.”
Ricciardo’s team mate, Russian Daniil Kvyat, qualified 13th with Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams filling the top six places.
Ricciardo, who won three races last year, said seventh was as good as he could have hoped for.
“It was fun to sort of feel the car for once and actually get to push it properly and I think seventh is good,” he said.
“If you look at the three teams in front of us, they’ve been the ones who have been up there all weekend…so seventh is where we are now and I’m happy we at least achieved that.”
As for the three Formula 1 rookies making their debut, this was an impressive debut for Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen and Felipe Nasr. News article provided by Reuters.
The three rookie drivers who took part in qualifying for the Formula One season-opening Australian Grand Prix all enjoyed successful debuts on Saturday, safely booking spots in the middle of the pack at Albert Park.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz, whose father and namesake was a double world rally champion in the 1990s, was the pick of the trio, qualifying eighth in his Toro Rosso for Sunday’s race.
His 17-year-old Dutch team mate Max Verstappen, who will become the youngest driver to start a Formula One race, was 12th, while Brazil’s Felipe Nasr was sandwiched between the pair in 11th after a roller-coaster day with his Sauber team.
Nasr, 22, was only confirmed as a starter after Giedo van der Garde dropped his legal action against Sauber, allowing the team to race this weekend.
There were no such concerns for Toro Rosso, whose rookies both qualified ahead of Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat and the two McLarens.
“I feel very comfortable in the car, I’m really enjoying myself a lot. It’s difficult to know what to expect tomorrow, as it will be my first race, but I’m looking forward to it,” said Sainz, whose father was watching trackside.
“It will surely be a bit of an adventure but this is what I’ve been preparing myself for the whole winter and I feel ready.”
Verstappen, who has hogged the team spotlight in the build-up to the race, was fourth fastest after the first stage of qualifying but slipped back to 12th after the second phase following a small mistake.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good lap because the tyres were not ready. During the second push-lap, I made a mistake out of turn four, where I went a bit too wide and lost the rear, losing quite a lot of time,” he said.
“It’s a shame but I can’t change any of this now. I look forward to tomorrow, my first ever Formula one race. The car is working well and hopefully we will be able to score some points as we have a good race pace.”
Toro Rosso technical director James Key said he was impressed by his drivers.
“It was a new experience for them in a very tightly-packed environment here and slightly trickier conditions out on track than what we’ve had all weekend,” Key said.
“So it was a challenge for them but they managed to keep it together, they built-up extremely well with each new set of tyres and they adapted to the programme extremely well.”
Two other drivers embarking on their first full seasons in Formula One were not as successful, however, when Briton Will Stevens and Spaniard Roberto Merhi were excluded from the race when their Manor Marussia team were unable to get either car on the track for qualifying.
Struggling Manor Marussia will miss the season-opening Australian Grand Prix after failing to make it onto the Melbourne track for qualifying.
The British-based team struggled just to get their cars to Albert Park for the opening race but were unable to get either of them on the circuit because of a computer software problem.
The team sat out Friday’s two practice sessions as well as Saturday’s final warm-up and the official qualifying session, making them ineligible for Sunday’s race.
“I think we made a lot of progress yesterday, in fact we made huge steps forward yesterday, but we are still hitting some problems,” Manor’s sporting director Graeme Lowdon told reporters.
“We’re just going to run out of time. But one thing is for sure, the guys are not going to stop and they are just going to keep pushing as hard as they can until somebody says stop. We will keep pushing but we have still got some issues that we need to solve.”
The cash-strapped team have been more focused on securing their immediate survival than any long-term planning, having missed the last three races of 2014. They will be starting the season with a revised 2014 car, tweaked to meet 2015 safety regulations, and last year’s Ferrari power unit.
They only finalised their driving line-up earlier this week, naming Spaniard Roberto Merhi to partner Britain’s Will Stevens.
Despite knowing they would struggle to race in Australia, Lowdon said it was important they had made the effort.
“We are trying very hard but it is a tough thing to do in the time available,” he said. “But the good thing is that once the problems are solved, that’s it. We’ll be running.”
Lowdon did offer some glimmer of hope that Manor would be able to race at either the next round in Malaysia or the one after in China.
“That’s a reasonable kind of expectation,” he said. “Based on the progress we made yesterday, I think that’s given everybody a real boost. And we’ll be pushing as hard as we can.”
Former world champion Damon Hill told reporters he too thought it was a positive sign the team came to Australia.
“This team has had a whole lot of difficulties thrown at it and it’s still surviving,” he said. “It might be that it is just a technical box thing, they have to have turned up and shown that they are a force that is still alive and a functioning team even though it can’t run a car.”
Source: Reuters