Despite the expectations of seeing rain fall over Albert Park and the fact that the third practice session had started with a wet track, in the end it was a dry qualifying session, which kicked off the 2018 season. Normal qualifying conditions and not many surprises, with Hamilton taking pole ahead of Räikkönen and Vettel
The start of the Q1 saw Kimi Räikkönen quickly take first place, before being overtaken by Lewis Hamilton a few minutes after. Behind, the Ferrari and Red Bull were swapping places while Haas and McLaren were dicing it out to appear as the fourth fastest machine on track.
The danger zone was occupied by the Sauber, Williams and Toro Rosso. Pierre Gasly, Sergey Sirotkin, Charles Leclerc, Marcus Ericsson and Brendon Hartley were the first drivers to be knocked out in Q1 this season and they will start the race from P20 to P16 on the grid, respectively.
In Q2, Max Verstappen was the first driver to take the track and once again, Räikkönen went first, again overtaken by Hamilton. Nico Hülkenberg had a brief off at the first corner but fortunately for him, he was quickly back on track, metaphorically and literally.
The last few minutes of the second phase of qualifying saw some ominous dark clouds covering the track and for a while, it looked like the rain could end up appearing after all. Under these circumstances, Haas and Renault were the ‘guests’ on Q3, joining Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. Therefore, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, Sergio Pérez, Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso were knocked out. Sebastian Vettel clocked the fastest lap so far and the first 1:21 of the weekend.
The Q3 started with an electric air, but before any driver could complete a timed lap, Valtteri Bottas had a crash on the exit of turn 2, damaging his car (and possibly destroying his gearbox in the process). The Finn kept tenth place and the session had to be red-flagged.
Roughly fifteen minutes later, the green flag was signaling the rest of the drivers to go out on track again and Hamilton was the first driver to clock a competitive time, followed by Vettel and the Red Bull drivers. The first two had done so with used tyres, showing there was still pace left to show.
On his last try, Hamilton completed an absolutely astonishing lap that gave him the pole over six tenths ahead of Räikkönen, second followed by Vettel. Verstappen was faster than his team mate, who finished fifth but will start the race eighth after receiving a three place penalty for not slowing enough during a red flag situation on Friday. Kevin Magnussen was sixth, with Romain Grosjean seventh. Due to Ricciardo’s penalty, both gain a place and will start from the third row of the grid. Hülkenberg will start ahead of Ricciardo, with Sainz and Bottas behind.
The first qualifying session of the year finished with Hamilton proving that he is as fast as always over one lap, with Mercedes and his ‘party mode’ for Q3 being potentially a good help. The first race of the season will start tomorrow at 6:10am, GMT.
