2015 AUSTRALIAN GP: HAMILTON ON POLE, MERCEDES AMG 1.4 SECONDS AHEAD

Lewis Hamilton has claimed pole position for the Australian Grand Prix from his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg. Hamilton now becomes the most successful driver in the history of qualifying at Melbourne, with four pole positions at the circuit. Since 2005, the race has been won from pole six times, while the lowest placing from which the grand prix has ever been won is seventh.

The Mercedes drivers, plus Williams driver Valtteri Bottas, were the only people to get through Q1 using the medium tyre only. The teams all switched to the soft tyre for Q2, but Mercedes was the only team to complete the session with just one run.

Hamilton’s pole lap, claimed right at the end of Q3, ensures that Mercedes has been fastest in every session of the Australian Grand Prix held so far. Hamilton’s pole time of 1m26.327s was more than three seconds faster than fastest time of the weekend in 2014: 1m29.375s, set in FP3 as qualifying was wet. Hamilton was also fastest in FP3 this morning, using the soft compound tyres. 

215 AUSTRALIAN GP - QUALIFYING

P.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:26.327		16
2.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG	1:26.921	+ 0.594	14
3.	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:27.718	+ 1.391	21
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:27.757	+ 1.430	12
5.	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:27.790	+ 1.463	17
6.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:28.087	+ 1.760	17
7.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:28.329	+ 2.002	16
8.	Carlos Sainz Jr	Toro Rosso	1:28.510	+ 2.183	22
9.	Romain Grosjean	Lotu	1:28.560	+ 2.233	22
10.	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:29.480	+ 3.153	20
	Q2 Fastest time	Lewis Hamilton	1:26.894	Gap	Laps
11.	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:28.800	+ 1.906	17
13.	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:28.868	+ 1.974	15
12.	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1:29.070	+ 2.176	9
14.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India	1:29.208	+ 2.314	14
15.	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:29.209	+ 2.315	13
	Q1 Fastest time	Lewis Hamilton	1:28.586	Gap	Laps
16.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:31.376	+ 2.790	10
17.	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:31.422	+ 2.836	7
18.	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren	1:32.037	+ 3.451	8
	Outside 107%	Team
NQ.	Will Stevens	Marussia Manor	no time		0
NQ.	Roberto Merhi	Marussia Manor	no time		0

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