Lewis Hamilton powered to pole position at a rain drenched Melbourne to deny home favourite Daniel Ricciardo top place on the grid.

It was Hamilton’s 32nd career pole - equalling the tally of the great Nigel Mansell - although he was so nearly kept of top spot by the brilliant Ricciardo, who starts second ahead of Hamilton’s teammate Nico Rosberg.

The biggest surprise from Q1 was the elimination of the Lotus team, with Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado starting at the back of the grid with their car not ready for the session.

It is clear the Enstone-based team - who have endured a torrid pre-season - have many problems to address and will be lucky to score points tomorrow.

As the rain cascaded down in Q2 the defending world champion Sebastian Vettel could only manage 13th on the grid. In 2013 he made Q3 at every race.

Much to the delight of the crowd, Ricciardo comfortably outpaced him, and as Vettel crossed the line to miss out on Q3 the crowd cheered their delight.

The other big name driver who missed out on the pole position shootout was Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who put his car into the wall after losing control in the tricky conditions.

Equally surprisingly, Jenson Button could only manage 11th, held up on his final flying lap by Raikkonen’s stricken Ferrari.

The rain would get worse in Q3 with many teams opting to start the session on the extreme wet tyres.

However, as the track dried towards the end of Q3 it was Ricciardo’s decision to go on intermediates that very nearly paid dividends.

Rosberg went over the line first, laying down a marker before both Ricciardo went quicker and then Hamilton by 0.317 of a second to take pole position.

The result of Ricciardo and those from the surprising Toro Rosso’s of Jean-Eric Vergne (6th) and Daniil Kvyat (8th) has allayed fears in some quarters of the performance of the much maligned Renault engine.

But their race reliability is still untested and it is hard to see any team being able to compete with the excellent Mercedes in Sunday's race.

After the qualifying Hamilton was understandably delighted. "It's been an interesting weekend", he said. "Today it made it so much harder with the conditions but I'm really happy for the job the team did.

“But to be up here is a great showing for the team. It's great for Ricciardo, too, in his first grand prix for Red Bull."

So tomorrow F1 will embark on a new hybrid era, and just like in 2009 when a Brackley-based team then known as Brawn stormed to victory, expect that factory to be celebrating again when the chequered flag is flown.

  Driver Car Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1 Lewis Hamilton 44 Mercedes 1:31.699 1:42.890 1:44.231
2 Daniel Ricciardo 3 Red Bull 1:30.775 1:42.295 1:45.314
3 Nico Rosberg 6 Mercedes 1:32.564 1:42.264 1:44.595
4 Kevin Magnussen 20 McLaren 1:30.949 1:43.247 1:45.745
5 Fernando Alonso 14 Ferrari 1:31.388 1:42.805 1:45.819
6 Jean-Eric Vergne 25 Toro Rosso 1:33.488 1:43.849 1:45.864
7 Nico Hulkenburg 27 Force India 1:33.893 1:43.658 1:46.030
8 Daniil Kvyat 26 Toro Rosso 1:33.777 1:44.331 1:47.368
9 Felipe Massa 19 Williams 1:31.228 1:44.242 1:48.079
10 Valtteri Bottas* 77 Williams 1:31.601 1:43.852 1:48.147
11 Jenson Button 22 McLaren 1:31.396 1:44.437  
12 Kimi Raikkonen 7 Ferrari 1:32.439 1:44.494  
13 Sebastian Vettel 1 Red Bull 1:31.931 1:44.668  
14 Adrian Sutil 99 Sauber 1:33.673 1:45.655  
15 Kamui Kobayashi 10 Caterham 1:34.274 1:45.867  
16 Sergio Perez 11 Force India 1:34.141 1:47.293  
17 Max Chilton 4 Marussia 1:34.293    
18 Jules Bianchi 17 Marussia 1:34.794    
19 Esteban Gutierrez 21 Sauber 1:35.117    
20 Marcus Ericsson 9 Caterham 1:35.157    
21 Romain Grosjean 8 Lotus 1:36.993    
22 Pastor Maldonado 13 Lotus      

*Valtteri Bottas 5-place grid penalty for illegal gearbox change, will start 15th on Sunday

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About the author
Dan Smith
Sports journalism, radio presenter for 103.9 Voice FM and general news bloke, trying to make my way in the working world. Anyone want to pay me to write for them? Have pen, will travel!