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50th pole for Hamilton in a dull qualifying

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