Lewis Hamilton takes POLE for Mercedes in 2018 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying

The 2018 Formula 1 Grand Prix Circus kicks off business in Australia this weekend, and it seems business as usual as Lewis Hamilton takes pole position for Mercedes in qualifying.

If you’d had to take bet on who would get the first pole position of the new 2018 F1 season, you’d probably bet on Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes. And you’d be right – Lewis Hamilton is on pole for tomorrow’s 2018 Australian Grand Prix.

But it didn’t look like it was going to be easy for Hamilton, as he was pushed by the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen right up until the last flying lap of Q3.

We have to wonder if Mercedes has an ’11’ setting on the steering wheel, because Hamilton went from fighting off Vettel and Verstappen to a final qualifying lap which beat the rest by a huge, in F1 lap terms, 0.664 seconds to take the first pole of the year.

We don’t know if Bottas has an ’11’ setting too – because he crashed out in Q3 and will start 10th – but Hamilton certainly seemed to be a cut above the rest, with Kimi Raikkonen the closest, followed by Vettel in third and Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bulls in fourth and fifth.

That said, Ricciardo will actually start in eight after a three place penalty, so the Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean will start in fifth and sixth and Renault’s Nico Hulkenburg in seventh. Ninth spot goes to Carlos Sainz in the Renault.

The much vaunted ‘new’ McLaren, complete with Renault power, looked set to make a reasonable impact as the best outside the top three of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. But Alonso made a bit of a mess of things in Q2 and failed to make Q3. He will start in 11th, with team mate Vandoorne in 12th.

The sensible bet for tomorrow’s race must be Hamilton after that final qualifying lap, but with a pair of Ferraris on his back – and no Bottas riding shotgun – it could be an interesting race.