Mercedes team locks out front row in Melbourne

The 2019 Mercedes is so dominant, without a doubt Lewis Hamilton will be 2019 World Champion

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton will be 2019 World Champions. It's the easiest prediction we ever had to make. Hamilton won pole for the Australian Grand Prix from teammate Valtteri Bottas by the slimmest of margins, but the fact they were a full 0.7s up from the third-placed Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel says it all. And based on practice times, their race pace is even more dominant.

Hamilton clocked the lap record of Albert Park with a 1m 20.486s to snatch the initiative away from Bottas and record his sixth consecutive pole at the circuit, and a record-equaling eighth at the Australian Grand Prix.

With many having believed that Mercedes and Ferrari were nip-and-tuck going into the session, it was a tough showing for Ferrari unless they steal Aldo Costa back away from Mercedes, with Vettel’s teammate Charles Leclerc ending up P5 for the team having been pipped by Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Romain Grosjean was a strong sixth, the Frenchman within 0.4s of Leclerc’s time and one place ahead of his teammate Kevin Magnussen as Haas capitalized on their strong pre-season showing.

McLaren rookie Lando Norris was another star of Saturday, making it through to Q3 in his first ever F1 qualifying session – in contrast to his team mate Carlos Sainz, who dropped out in Q1 – and winding up P8 in his MCL34.

Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen and Racing Point's Sergio Perez completed the top 10.

Local favorite Daniel Ricciardo was unable to make it into Q3 on his first quali outing for Renault, finishing up in P12, one place down on his team mate Nico Hulkenberg, while Pierre Gasly had a terrible start to his Red Bull career proper, failing to make it out of Q1 in his RB15.

More to follow……..

Facts and Figures

• Max Verstappen starts P4, and to-date, he’s never run a lap in the top three in Australia.

• It’s the third year in a row that Romain Grosjean has started the Australian Grand Prix in sixth – although with five Australian Grand Prix DNFs, the Frenchman has the worst finishing record of any driver on the grid here.

• Pierre Gasly only failed to get out of Q1 once in 2018 with Toro Rosso – but has already managed it in his first Grand Prix with Red Bull.

• Lance Stroll in P16 recorded his fifth consecutive Q1 knock-out (carried over from 2018) – the longest streak of any driver on the grid.

• Lando Norris’ P8 is the best start for a McLaren driver on their debut since 2014.

• Norris' achievement came on a great day all around for the three rookies on this year's grid. Alexander Albon and George Russell both also outqualified their team mates.

• It’s the first time that both Williams – winners of the first ever race at Albert Park – have had both cars eliminated from Q1 in Melbourne.

Quotes

Bottas and Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton
I feel so fortunate to be in the position I'm in today. We had no idea that we'd have this gap to the others – we thought we were behind, we thought it was going to be a push, so we gave it absolutely everything and more to arrive here with the best possible package and delivery. Valtteri and I have been pushing the car to its absolute limits. We haven't massively changed the car; it's almost the same set-up we had in Barcelona, so this gap was really surprising to see. This is the first time we've unleashed the full potential of the car and I'm so happy to have a car that I can fight with. This is a really great start to the new season and it puts us in a good position for the fight tomorrow.

Valtteri Bottas
I really enjoyed driving today, I was in a good flow and usually when you enjoy driving it shows on the time sheets as well. My first lap in Q3 was pretty good and I wanted to improve in my second lap, but I was stuck in traffic on my out lap, so my tires were just a bit too cold at the start of the lap. Lewis did put in a fantastic lap, but I think without the traffic it would have been a close fight for pole today. We didn't expect to be this strong – we're happy, but frankly quite surprised to see that gap. We came here, not knowing where we'd be and actually thought we'd be a bit behind Ferrari. But we shouldn't underestimate them; they looked very strong in winter testing and have a quick car, even if they struggled today. At the same time our team has done a really good job between Barcelona and here, constantly improving the car. Today was good fun, we both got some nice laps in, so let's hope we will have a good Sunday as well. It's a decent run into Turn 1, so hopefully I can get a good start, build a gap to the cars behind and have a good fight with Lewis.

Bottas and Hamilton can't believe how good Aldo Costa's 2019 car is. He designed it before going into semi-retirement

Toto Wolff
I'm overwhelmed to see both our cars on the front row. The team has done a great job in the past weeks: after a difficult time in testing, especially in the first week in Spain, we have turned over every stone to find answers, to try and understand the car better. And it came together when it mattered for us today. But one result is not a reason to get carried away: not only is this circuit a bit of an outlier when it comes to performance, but we have strong rivals in Ferrari and Red Bull, and we know from hard experience in the past two years that the racing is done on Sunday and that's the day that counts. For today, though, we can be happy with what we delivered – the team for a slick job in the garage, Lewis for his 84th pole and Valtteri for showing all his speed and taking a very close P2 on the grid. Now we turn our attention to the race.

James Allison
Although the stopwatch yesterday told us that we were quick, we also knew from our running in Barcelona during the winter the threat from Ferrari was very real – and we believe it still is – so it is with a mixture of relief, surprise and delight that both our cars claimed front row positions today, confirming yesterday's performance and setting us fair for a decent Sunday. However, we know our opponents are strong because we have seen it, so we will make sure we keep our guard up and concentrate on the small things that can catch us out – because we know that if we blink, our rivals will take it. Nonetheless, I am delighted for the whole team, for Lewis for his well-earned pole position and also for Valtteri, who really made Lewis fight for it today.

Vettel knows Ferrari has no chance to win in 2019 unless the Mercedes' crash out

Sebastian Vettel #5 “Starting tomorrow’s race from third is not too bad and the car is ok, even if it’s not exactly how we would like it and we are not as fast as we wanted to be. But we’ll start from there and see what we can bring home. This track is unique and conditions are different to what we experienced in testing. We have definitely improved the car overnight, but obviously not enough to be in front of everyone. In tomorrow’s race we’ll have time to understand the car further. We will race as hard as we can and see where that takes us. After all, we are just 16 meters behind pole position".

Charles Leclerc #16 “I can’t say I’m happy with this qualifying result. After a good Q1 and a very good Q2, in Q3, especially on my second run, I made a few too many mistakes, especially in the first sector and I was unable to improve. I will try to learn from this and to prepare as well as possible for the race. As for the gap to our main competitors, I have to admit that maybe we had expected it to be smaller, even if this is an unusual track which often throws up a different order to what we can see on a more traditional track. On our side, I think there is still room to work on the car and the race is tomorrow and will be pretty long, so I am still aiming for a podium. I will definitely have to get a perfect start, because overtaking is far from easy here."

Mattia Binotto, Team Principal “We can’t say this was the result we were expecting, but we are well aware that Albert Park is not an ideal track for us, as its characteristics do not suit our car that well. Of course, we must improve, but we have gathered a great deal of information to identify the areas on which we must work. As usual, Seb showed that he knows how to use every centimeter of the track and Charles got through his first real test, a few little errors notwithstanding. Ahead of us, we have another 20 qualifying sessions and 21 races, so it’s a long game and we’re ready to play it."

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