Hamilton takes pole in Australia

LewisHamilton - Cropped

Lewis Hamilton took pole for the Australian Grand Prix as Mercedes' dominant start to the season continued in Melbourne on Saturday.

The reigning world champion may have been outperformed by team-mate Nico Rosberg on Friday, but there was no repeat a day later.

Hamilton was the first driver to break 1:27.000 this weekend, with his 1:26.327 in Q3 enough to secure pole position for Sunday's race at the Albert Park circuit.

Rosberg also managed to get inside the 1:27 barrier, but his 1:26.921 was well adrift of his team-mate.

It marked Hamilton's 39th career Formula One pole position.

Felipe Massa (Williams) was a surprise in third, followed by the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

Despite all his problems during the weekend, Daniel Ricciardo will start from seventh.

McLaren's woes were highlighted in Q1 as Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen finished as the bottom two, with Manor Marussia again not running.

Max Verstappen made an impressive start with fourth spot in Q1, but he slipped to 12th in Q2 to miss the cut for Q3.

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:26.327
2. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1:26.921
3. Felipe Massa (Williams) 1:27.718
4. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 1:27.757
5. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1:27.790
6. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1:28.087
7. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 1:28.329
8. Carlos Sainz Jnr (Toro Rosso) 1:28.510
9. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1:28.560
10. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) 1:29.480

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