Lewis Hamilton will be on pole tomorrow in Albert Park for the first Grand Prix of the 2016 season. With a very disappointing new qualifying format which provided very little action and excitement on track, Rosberg was 2nd for Mercedes and Vettel 3rd on his Ferrari.
All drivers came out on track right at the beginning of Q1. The new qualifying format caught some teams by surprise, since both Manor stayed in the box and the Haas drivers and Nasr didn’t go on track with enough time to set a time before the 90s countdown. Wehrlein was the first one out, followed by Haryanto, Gutiérrez, Grosjean, Nasr and Ericsson. Palmer avoided elimination in his last lap on P14, ahead of his teammate Magnussen.
The Renault drivers weren’t as lucky in Q2 and Magnussen and Palmer were the first two drivers out, followed by Button and Alonso. The first surprise came with Bottas, who was eliminated in 11th. After that, both Force India gave up on the so far unexciting new qualifying format and Hülkenberg and Pérez were P10 and P9.
The failure of the new qualifying system reached its peak on Q3. Ricciardo was the first one eliminated and after that came Sainz, Massa, Verstappen, Räikkönen and Vettel, none of them fighting for their position on track. Only Rosberg, who was 5th on his first attempt, improved his time and moved up to 2nd. There was no fight for the pole and barely any for eliminations.
Results:
| Pos. | Car | Driver | Team | Laps | Lap Time |
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes AMG | 14 | 1:23,837 |
| 2 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG | 13 | 1:24,197 |
| 3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 14 | 1:24,675 |
| 4 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 13 | 1:25,033 |
| 5 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 12 | 1:25,434 |
| 6 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 12 | 1:25,458 |
| 7 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 14 | 1:25,582 |
| 8 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing | 15 | 1:25,589 |
| 9 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Force India | 12 | 1:25,753 |
| 10 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg | Force India | 14 | 1:25,865 |
| 11 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 9 | 1:25,961 |
| 12 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 9 | 1:26,125 |
| 13 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 9 | 1:26,304 |
| 14 | 30 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault Sport F1 Team | 12 | 1:27,601 |
| 15 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault Sport F1 Team | 11 | 1:27,742 |
| 16 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 9 | 1:27,435 |
| 17 | 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 6 | 1:27,958 |
| 18 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull Racing | 5 | 1:28,008 |
| 19 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas F1 Team | 6 | 1:28,322 |
| 20 | 21 | Esteban Gutiérrez | Haas F1 Team | 6 | 1:29,606 |
| 21 | 88 | Rio Haryanto | Manor F1 Team | 3 | 1:29,627 |
| 22 | 94 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor F1 Team | 3 | 1:29,642 |