Aus GP: Hamilton on Pole

[Bethonie Waring]

Lewis Hamilton will start the first race of the 2017 season on pole after beating Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by in 0.268s qualifying.

After topping the final free practice session in the morning, Vettel split the two Mercedes drivers. Valtteri Bottas will start the race third after a “scrappy” flying lap for the Finn. He’ll start alongside Kimi Raikkonen.

Daniel Ricciardo crashed at the start of the final qualifying session. The home favourite was out of shape at the exit of turn 14, and the car ran backwards into the barrier, bringing out the red flag and pausing the session. With a damaged rear, Ricciardo wasn’t able to get back out and will start the race in tenth.

Earlier in qualifying, it was a stressful time for Williams as they worked to get Lance Stroll’s car ready after a crash in FP3. The Canadian was able to get out and set a time, but could only manage 19th fastest. A penalty for a gearbox change will demote him to the back of the pack. Team-mate Felipe Massa was able to get into Q3 and set the seventh fastest time.

After a relatively trouble free weekend for McLaren so far, signs of the difficult time the team are having returned in Q1, when a fuel flow problem kept Stoffel Vandoorne in the pits. He didn manage to get out later in the session, but could only manage P18. Fernando Alonso didn’t face the same problems and proceeded to Q2. He will start the race from thirteenth.

Special mention goes to Antonio Giovinazzi. The Italian was only told he would be competing in tomorrow’s race this morning, and only had an hour of track time in which to get up to speed. Giovinazzi was close to getting through into Q2, but made a small mistake at the final corner on his final lap, and will start the race from sixteenth.

Full order:

1. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – 1:22.188
   
2. Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari – 1:22.456
3. Valtteri Bottas – Mercedes – 1:22.481
4. Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari – 1:23.033
5. Max Verstappen – Red Bull – 1:23.485
6. Romain Grosjean – Haas – 1:24.074
7. Felipe Massa – Williams – 1:24.443
8. Carlos Sainz – Toro Rosso – 1:24.487
9. Daniil Kvyat – Toro Rosso - 1:24.512
10. Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull – no time
11. Sergio Perez – Force India – 1:25.081
12. Nico Hulkenberg – Renault – 1:25.091
13. Fernando Alonso – McLaren – 1:25.425
14. Esteban Ocon – Force India – 1:25.568
15. Marcus Ericsson – Sauber – 1:26.485
16. Antonio Giovinazzi – Sauber – 1:26.419
17. Kevin Magnussen – Haas – 1:26.847
18. Stoffel Vandoorne – McLaren – 1:26.858
19. Lance Stroll – Williams – 1:27.143
20. Jolyon Palmer – Renault – 1:28.244

For more Formula One news and discussions head over to the RaceDepartment Formula One sub forum and join in with your fellow community members.

Who do you think will get the best start? Can Vettel challenge for the win? Is there a chance Giovinazzi will score Sauber’s only point of the season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Stroll and Palmer, awesome job guys!

 

[Deleted member 6919]

Yeh great, cheers for the spoiler alert guys, I don't have sky sports so wait for Ch4 Highlights..so come on the main page and straight in front of you get the result..

 

[kedy89]

Stroll and Palmer, awesome job guys!

Don't forget about Magnussen

 

[burrito]

Stroll and Palmer, awesome job guys!

Pop quiz!

Q What two things do Lance Stroll and Jolyon Palmer have in common?

1. Daddies monies!
2. Talented teammates!

 

[LeSunTzu]

Yeh great, cheers for the spoiler alert guys, I don't have sky sports so wait for Ch4 Highlights..so come on the main page and straight in front of you get the result..

Hamilton on pole is hardly a spoiler

 

[Kakusso]

Positive note for Romain Grosjean great result. Williams this is a driver you should hire to come back to the top.
Negative note for Jolyon Palmer. His results sheet is not worthy of being in F1.

 

[JayJayRaceinho]

oh, it allready started so early.... damn timezone

hamilton on pole, the season starts good 0.3 difference is not too far away, let's see how it evolves.

 

[grahamw]

Felt for Giovinnazi when on the final corner he over ran and screwed up what would have been entry in to Q2 beating Magnussen.

However apart from a trip in to the gravel and barrier by Daniel Ricciardo who was clearly trying to wring everything he could out the Red Bull which lags behind the Ferrari currently nothing was unpredicatable or overly exciting during qualifying.

Those front wings look like the first few corners could be carnage tomorrow so Hamilton getting off the start line faster than Vetel will make watching the cars behind so much easier.

There was a 40% prediction of rain for qualifying and it didn't and the chances of a dry race tomorrow are virtually 100% according to weather reports. That possibility might have played in to some teams hands but I guess we will have to wait for another day for that delight.

Assuming the Ferrari had the pace you would have put the experience and skills of Vettel to put Bottas behind him in Q3 but qually pace and race pace are very different.

It was good to see Grosjean get a good position and finally Massa actually show he hasn't forgotten to compete in F1. Even Alonso got out of Q3 but will the car last the race is a far bigger issue I feel.

Guess its going to be much like last season but with a slightly possibility of an interesting strategy from Mercedes since the comentators seem to thing Hamilton will be using used ultra soft tyres since he only did one stint in Q2.

The rules state... Drivers who make it through to Q3 must hand back the set of the softer compound tyres nominated for Q3, and start the race on the tyres with which they set their fastest time in Q2. All other drivers will be able to use the set that is saved for Q3 during the race.

Interesting...?

 

[Vangelis Parginos]

Guess its going to be much like last season but with a slightly possibility of an interesting strategy from Mercedes since the comentators seem to thing Hamilton will be using used ultra soft tyres since he only did one stint in Q2.

It was a software problem, they didnt read the barcode of the tire correct, he was on a fresh set.

 

[paracletus]

Obliterates the all-time qualifying record for this circuit (remembering these cars have drs).
Said it before, but in 2017 it'll become apparent how good NR was - unappreciated/relatively unpopular master of racing right there.

Very disappointing for mclaren once again :/
didn't see vandoorne's lap, but that is a poor result.

 

[CW.]

Obliterates the all-time qualifying record for this circuit (remembering these cars have drs).
Said it before, but in 2017 it'll become apparent how good NR was - unappreciated/relatively unpopular master of racing right there.

Very disappointing for mclaren once again :/
didn't see vandoorne's lap, but that is a poor result.

On the radio Vandoorne said he didn't get his outlap as good as he wanted

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Yeh great, cheers for the spoiler alert guys, I don't have sky sports so wait for Ch4 Highlights..so come on the main page and straight in front of you get the result..

Welcome to the Internet Don't want results? Stay away from motorsport sites and social media on race weekends

 

[Yannick Van Broeck]

On the radio Vandoorne said he didn't get his outlap as good as he wanted

Yes, plus that he had an fuel issue on his first try so he only had time for one timed lap which got screwed because he had to back off on his outlap to create distance between him and Alonso.

Nevertheless, I expect Vandoorne to put up more of a fight against Alonso once they reach tracks they both raced on before. This is Stoffel's first drive there, Alonso's 15th or so? Anyway, I still have high hopes for my fellow Belgian if McLaren/Honda sort out their issues

 

[Steve Bird]

Being a life long fan of Williams I'm soooooooooo unimpressed by Stroll.

English definition of Stroll.

stroll verb [ I ]
walk in a slow, relaxed manner, especially for pleasure:

Example:

We could stroll along the beach after dinner.
or
I can stroll around each GP track knowing my job is safe as Daddy is paying.

 

[Celestiale]

Stroll and Palmer, awesome job guys!

So painful to see those billionair's sons in F1 seeing their sugar daddies feeding the money in, while there are probably over 1000 race drivers out there, even GT-AM driver, being better then them.
That's why F1 isn't the top sport when it comes to racing, in my opinion. Fastest cars, yes. Best drivers? Rather not...

 

[Enagee]

Welcome to the Internet Don't want results? Stay away from motorsport sites and social media on race weekends

Have to say am impressed Racedepartment is up to date so quickly. Good to know we can get up to date news here. Good work guys @Bethonie Waring
.

 

[Vapir]

6s between 1st and last?

 

[Terry Rock]

Stroll and Palmer are simply not ready for 'Prime-Time'.
They're both in well over their heads.
A testing role prior to race seat promotion, would serve them better.
Kevin is also starting to descend into that category as well.
He'd better get his act together....and quickly.
Romain started complaining yesterday about brake balance...(at least he backed it up with a good qualifying result)...but he'd better watch that as well.
Gunther won't tolerate that for very long.
He needs to look at... and take a 'page' from the Gut example.

 

[Blimey]

looking at the quali times...its just pathetic what I'm seeing...