Posted on 14th March 2015
Today, Lewis Hamilton started his championship title defence in the best possible way by claiming Pole Position at the Albert Park circuit ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg and Williams driver Felipe Massa.
With Manor F1 still not resolved their issues with trying to get the cars onto the circuit, it is looking very likely that Will Stevens or Roberto Merhi will be racing in the Grand Prix this weekend. But nevertheless, it is a fantastic achievement for the Manor F1 team to be at the circuit this weekend and I hope they are able to run in the next Grand Prix in Malaysia.
In an action-packed qualifying session, Hamilton managed to produce a stunning lap time of 1.26.327 while his team mate Rosberg who made a mistake and locked up his tyres in one of his flying laps in Q3 finished second 0.594 seconds behind but remained ahead of Massa who finished in third 1.391 seconds behind the Mercedes drivers. **
Sebastian Vettel started his Ferrari career in a reasonable fashion and qualified in fourth place ahead of his team mate Kimi Raikkonen in fifth place and ahead of Valtteri Bottas in sixth place who could have qualified in third but made a mistake in Q3 on one of his flying laps.
Daniel Ricciardo managed to qualify in seventh despite having a tough weekend so far ahead of Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz Jr who finished in a credible eighth place despite spinning on one of his flying laps in Q1 ahead of the Lotus drivers of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado who rounded off the top ten finishers.
Felipe Nasr qualified in eleventh place and was extremely unlucky not to make the top ten after missing out in Q2. But he managed to finish ahead of Max Verstappen in twelfth place, Daniil Kvyat in thirteenth place and both the Force India drivers of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez who finished in fourteenth and fifteenth places.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Marcus Ericsson qualified in sixteenth place ahead of the McLaren-Honda drivers of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen who ended the session in seventeenth and eighteenth places after a disastrous qualifying session for the pair.
The classification of Qualifying for the Australian GP is as follows:-
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.26.327
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 0.594
3. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.391s
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1.430s
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.430s
6. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.760s
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 2.002s
8. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 2.183s
9. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 2.233s
10. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 3.153s
11. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.28.800
12. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1.28.868
13. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull-Renault, 1.29.070
14. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.29.208
15. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.29.209
16. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.31.376
17. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.31.422
18. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren-Honda, 1.32.037
[Manor did not run in the session]
