Hamilton snatches pole in Melbourne, Vettel flops

Australia’s Ricciardo, embarking on his first race with Red Bull, stormed to the top of the field on his last run, before he was trumped by Mercedes’ Hamilton in a flying final lap in treacherous wet conditions. The 2008 world champion’s German team-mate, Nico Rosberg, placed third, with McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen fourth and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso fifth in the season’s first qualifying session. But there was a sensational miss for Vettel, seeking his fifth straight world title and record 10th consecutive race win, who failed even to reach the final qualifying shoot-out and will start from 12th. Hamilton’s Q3 time of 1min 44.231sec, three-tenths better than Ricciardo, gave him his third Melbourne pole and the 32nd of his career, equalling the total reached by fellow Briton and ex-world champion Nigel Mansell.

‘It’s been an interesting weekend and Saturday made it so much more harder for everyone with the conditions. But I’m really happy with what the team did. These new cars are a lot harder to drive in the wet, so it was a serious task and challenge Saturday,’ said Hamilton.