Lewis Hamilton has taken the first pole position of the season after setting a lap time that was six-tenths of a second ahead of the rest of the field. The Brit takes his seventh pole at Albert Park and the 73rd in his career.

Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas suffered a shock at the start of Q3 after he crashed out at Turn 2. After clipping the inside kerb at Turn 1, it bounced the car wide and caused him to spin violently into the barriers, which may have further consequences if changes need to be made to the car. 

Kimi Raikkonen will line-up on the front row alongside Hamilton, after the Finn managed to get the better of teammate Vettel. Vettel himself will start tomorrow's Grand Prix from third, with Max Verstappen alongside him for company.

Daniel Ricciardo qualified in fifth but will move down three grid spots after being handed a three-place grid penalty for speeding under a red flag on Friday. 

With the local hero dropping downwards, Kevin Magnussen, Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg, who qualified sixth, seventh and eighth respectively, will move up one spot each. Carlos Sainz was the last driver to set a lap time in the final part of qualifying. 

Q1

As the green flag unfurled for the opening qualifying session of the year, it was Hulkenberg who first came out, followed by Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson. Hulkenberg set the first lap of the session - 1:25.3. Grosjean briefly jumped into  P1, before being displaced by Sainz on a 1:24.6. 

The front-runners soon emerged, with Raikkonen the first to set a time which read as a 1:23.6. The Iceman held onto as both Vettel and Hamilton failed to set a stronger time initially. Bottas jumped into P2, before his compatriot Raikkonen improved to a 1:23.0.

Towards the rear of the field, Ericsson set a strong lap which saw him jump into P12. The times tumbled as the track rubbered in, and soon it was clear that it would be a battle between the Williams', Sauber's and Toro Rosso's to escape Q1. Stroll managed to leap out of the drop zone and progress into the next part of qualifying. 

Out in Q1: Hartley, Ericsson, Leclerc, Sirotkin & Gasly  

Q2

Going into the second qualifying session it looked like it will be a battle between three teams for four spots in the top ten between Renault, Haas and McLaren, with the Force India’s and Lance Stroll in the Williams looking less likely to make it through to Q3. It will most likely be a battle between the three top teams, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull for top spot in the session

Interestingly in the first runs both Red Bull cars opted to run the slower super soft tyres to potentially open up there strategy for tomorrow’s race but was only enough to put them fifth and sixth, behind both Ferrari’s and Mercedes’ with Lewis Hamilton setting a blistering lap time to go nearly half a second quicker than anyone else initially.

In the midfield pack both McLarens, the Haas of Magnussen and the Renault of Carlos Sainz set the initial pace on the first runs to get into the final qualifying session, but with the track ever evolving everything would be on the line going into the final runs for the cars hovering around the top 10.

In the end the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg, who had to abort his first qualifying run after a nasty looking tyre lockup, and Haas of Romain Grosjean knocked out both McLaren’s to get into Q3, whilst Sebastian Vettel set a lap of intent at the front to go to the top of the time sheets signifying a resumption of last year’s championship battle going into Q3

Out in Q2: Alonso, Vandoorne, Perez, Stroll & Ocon

Q3

After the tightness at the end of the second qualifying session, Hamilton was the first to return to the track in anticipation of battle. He was soon followed by Bottas, who was looking to close in on the margin laid down in Q2.

Hamilton started his lap but it soon had to be aborted when Bottas crashed heavily at Turn 2. The Finn touched the kerb which bounced the W09 wide, causing it to spin and hit the barriers hard. A red flag was brought out to clean up the debris.

After the debris was collected, the green flag was waved once again. Ricciardo, Hamilton and Verstappen lined up at the end of the pit-lane to get out onto the circuit as quickly as possible. Ham set his first lap of the session, a 1:22.0.

Verstappen then laid down a time that was just six-hundredths of a second down on Hamilton's time. He held P2 before Vettel took up the position, only three-hundredths down on his fellow four-time world champion.

The cars were set for a titanic duel in the final minutes of the session, however Hamilton dropped jaws after he was four-tenths of a second up after the first sector on his final run. The Brit continued to gain time around the lap and took yet another pole position, starting his 2018 campaign in style.

Fergal Walsh and Sam Gale

Photos Australia 2018

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