Australian GP Qualifying: Hamilton eases to pole

For the fourth year in a row, Lewis Hamilton claimed pole in Melbourne, in the opening Qualifying session of the 2017 Formula One World Championship.

Hamilton's time of 1:22.188 was two tenths faster than Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and the Brit's Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas could both muster. Home favourite Daniel Ricciardo ended his session in the Turn 14 wall on what turned out to be his sole flying lap. He'll start from 10th, at best.

Despite Vettel's incredible, record breaking pace in the final Free Practice session, Hamilton never looked under any real threat, fastest in the first and last sections of Qualifying.

"It's been a fantastic weekend so far," he stated to the general press. "I'm incredibly proud of my team - this rule change has been huge and such a massive challenge for everyone."

And indeed, some have failed to get it anywhere near right. In yet another lacklustre weekend, McLaren are still plagued by plenty of troubles. Stoffel Vandoorne knocked out in Qualifying 1, partly due to more technical woes. On the other side of the garage, Fernando Alonso achieved a credible 13th.

Mercedes' nearest challengers are undoubtedly Ferrari. With Kimi Raikkonen poised in fourth, Vettel managed to score the Scuderia's first front row start since he took pole at Singapore in 2015. Could this be the start of a much needed resurgence? There were still questions of a masking of their true pace; those rumours were shattered today.

"I think we have a good car," Vettel admitted. "We had a mixed day yesterday, but the confidence in the car was there from testing and I think we showed it again today."

The sole remaining intact Red Bull could only manage fifth at the hands of Max Verstappen, over a second shy of Hamilton and the rest of the top three. Ricciardo's damaged car will thus not be the only headache the four-times champions will have to deal with tonight.

Even before the Qualifying hour began, there was news aplenty. Due to a meeting with the outside wall at Turn 10 in Practice 3, Lance Stroll's crew had to change the gearbox in his Williams, meaning that his 19th place turns to 20th; courtesy of a five-place grid penalty.

And at Sauber, Pascal Wehrlein decided to err on the side of caution in regards to his fitness this weekend - his place taken by F1 debutant Antonio Giovinazzi, Ferrari's reserve driver who filled in for the German during the first winter test.

The Italian had a great chance of making the second stage of Qualifying, but for a lock up at Turn 15 on his final run that saw him bumped down to 16th after all the laps had been completed. Mistake aside, Giovinazzi was rightly content with his performance. "I am so happy," the Italian beamed. "It is a dream come true for me."

Elsewhere, Vandoorne's troubled weekend continued with a fuel flow problem disrupting his progress. He starts 18th in his McLaren. But, his problems were shadowed by Jolyon Palmer's; the Brit setting the slowest time out of anyone in his Renault, spared of the ignominy of starting last by Stroll's punishment. Having suffered with a lack of track time yesterday, Palmer acknowledged that he will be in for a long race.

"I did my first low fuel run, on ultra-softs. And to be honest, the car was awful," Palmer told Sky Sports. "I'm a second off what I did on my second lap in FP1. The brakes are terrible, the balance is pretty horrible, the traction is terrible."

The other casualty of Q1 was the Haas of Kevin Magnussen, who suffered with handling issues and even took a trip across the grass at Turn 12.

The Ferraris took a gamble, starting on super-soft tyres in Q1. Whilst Vettel had no need to overly exert himself in order to get through, Raikkonen was unhappy with the compound, choosing a set of ultra-softs in order to safely get through.

In Q2 however, there were no tyre anomalies, the whole crowd of 15 united in going for ultra-softs. Bottas managed to edge ahead of Hamilton in the initial runs and stayed there for the rest of the session, with the rest of the pack trailing. Ferrari weren't too far behind, both around two tenths off the ultimate pace. Vettel's second run on a fresh set of tyres looked to be an improvement, until he decided to audibly scrub off speed before the line. Why? It's thought to have been due to his discontent with that set of tyres, unwilling to start on them.

The climax saw both Force Indias knocked out alongside their former employee Nico Hulkenberg, Alonso and finally Marcus Ericsson in the remaining Sauber. Alonso couldn't be too displeased with his 13th, vastly outperforming Vandoorne.

The threat of rain forced the big four to leave their garages early. Hamilton had the beating of Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen first time round, with Romain Grosjean managing to get within two seconds of the big guns in his Haas; the Frenchman expressing his delight with a questionable noise over the radio.

Ricciardo's crash saw the session halted for ten minutes, after the back end swapped around midway through Turn 14. The Australian sat dejected in his car, the incident owing to a rare slip up.

"Q2 we made a big step forward - Q1 was not competitive," Ricciardo told Sky. "Turn 14 caught me out. Just went it and the rear broke away. There was no way of catching that or saving it."

When the show resumed, there was time for one last fight at the front. Despite all the drivers improving, the order remained untouched, leaving Hamilton sitting pretty at the top. There's work to do for the rest, but Sunday's race looks to be a more competitive one than we've become accustomed to since 2014.