Lewis Hamilton claims his fifteenth Pole Position of his career ahead of the Australian GP

In qualifying for the Australian GP in Melbourne, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claimed the fifteenth Pole Position of his career ahead of his team mate Rosberg.

With the first time that the new qualifying system was introduced in Formula One, many people have wondered how it would perform but sadly if anything, it has confused people and wasn't exciting at all.

The new qualifying system means during Q1; all cars will be permitted on the track. Seven minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 8m30s, 10m0s, 11m30s, 13m0s and 14m30s leaving sixteen cars eligible to continue.

Q2 will then consist of the remaining fifteen remaining cars will be permitted on the track. Six minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 7m30s, 9m0s, 10m30s, 12m0s and 13m30s leaving nine cars eligible to continue.

Then Q3, the eight remaining cars will then be permitted on the track. Five minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 6m30s, 8m0s, 9m30s, 11m0s and 12m30s leaving two cars eligible to continue. At the end of the session any driver on the track may complete the lap he is on and, once any final lap has been completed, the overall classification will be established.

But it was Lewis Hamilton who took Pole Position with a lap time of 1.23.837 ahead of Nico Rosberg in second place who was 0.360 seconds behind him and ahead of Sebastian Vettel in third place who was 0.838 seconds behind Hamilton.

Kimi Raikkonen qualified in fourth place ahead of Max Verstappen in fifth place, Felipe Massa in sixth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in seventh place, Daniel Ricciardo in eighth place, Sergio Perez in ninth place and Nico Hulkenberg who rounded off the top ten finishers.

Valtteri Bottas ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Fernando Alonso in twelfth place, Jenson Button in thirteenth place, Jolyon Palmer in fourteenth place and Kevin Magnussen in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Marcus Ericsson finished the session in sixteenth place ahead of Felipe Massa in seventeenth place, Daniil Kvyat in eighteenth place, Romain Grosjean in nineteenth place and Esteban Gutierrez in twentieth place.
Both of the Manor rookies of Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto ended the session in the final two places.

The classification of Qualifying for the Australian GP is as follows:-

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.23.837
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 0.360s
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.838s
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.196s
5. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1.597s
6. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.621s
7. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.745s
8. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1.752s
9. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.25.753
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.25.865
11. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.25.961
12. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.26.125
13. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.26.304
14. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1.27.601
15. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1.27.742
16. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.27.435
17. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.27.958
18. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 1.28.006
19. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1.28.322
20. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1.29.606
21. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 1.29.642
22. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 1.29.627

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa