F1 2016: Hamilton blasts to pole in dead-end qualifying

The first qualifying session of the season should have been about the speed of the 2016 generation of Formula 1 machines as 13 of the 22 drivers went under the pole position set by Lewis Hamilton last year. It should have been about how the reigning F1 champion went almost 2.5 seconds under his pole lap last year for the 50th of his career. It should have been about how Hamilton's time of 1minute 23.827seconds was just three tenths slower than the lap record around the Albert Park Circuit and six tenths faster than Michael Schumacher's Australian GP pole at the same circuit in 2004, the year of the fastest F1 cars ever.

But instead the qualifying session was overshadowed by the sound of silence at the end of the three segments of qualifying as F1 tried out a new system that saw the slowest car get eliminated every 90 seconds after a certain point of Q1, Q2 and Q3. The intention was to have just two or three cars fighting for pole at the end of a segment. But what we got was dead-time. And in Q3, it was a full three minutes.

Instead of drivers scrambling to set a time right at the end of a session, we saw drivers heading for the post-qualifying weigh-in with the timer still counting down.

After the pre-season confusion over the new format, it is hoped the powers at be will rethink the need to change a qualifying session that had little wrong with it in the first place.

Away from the format though, the results of qualifying revealed the sharp-end of the F1 grid looking a lot like it did in 2015. Nico Rosberg's effort was almost four tenths slower than Hamilton's mark with Sebastian Vettel a further five tenths adrift. The German once again outqualfied teammate Kimi Raikkonen who was followed by Max Verstappen in the Ferrari powered (using the 2015 power unit, though).

Felipe Massa of Williams-Mercedes, Verstappen's teammate Carlos Sainz, Red Bull-Tag Heuer's Daniel Ricciardo, Force India-Mercedes' Sergio Perez and his teammate Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten.

2016 F1 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING (19/03/2016)
Albert Lake Park Circuit - 5.303km, 16 turns

1. #44 LEWIS HAMILTON (MERCEDES) 1:23.837 - 14 laps
2. #6 NICO ROSBERG (MERCEDES) 1:24.197 - 13 laps
3. #5 SEBASTIAN VETTEL (FERRARI) 1:24.675 - 14 laps
4. #7 KIMI RAIKKONEN (FERRARI) 1:25.033 - 13 laps
5. #55 MAX VERSTAPPEN (TORO ROSSO-FERRARI) 1:25.434 - 12 laps
6. #19 FELIPE MASSA (WILLIAMS-MERCEDES) 1:25.418 - 12 laps
7. #33 CARLOS SAINZ (TORO ROSSO-FERRARI) 1:25.582 - 14 laps
8. #3 DANIEL RICCIARDO (RED BULL-TAG HEUER) 1.25.589 - 15 laps
9. #11 SERGIO PEREZ* (FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES) 1:25.753 - 12 laps
10. #27 NICO HULKENBERG* (FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES) 1:25.865 - 14 laps
11. #77 VALTTERI BOTTAS* (WILLIAMS-MERCEDES) 1:25.961 - 9 laps
12. #14 FERNANDO ALONSO* (MCLAREN-HONDA) 1:26.215 - 9 laps
13. #22 JENSON BUTTON* (MCLAREN-HONDA) 1:26.304 - 9 laps
14. #30 JOLYON PALMER* (RENAULT) 1:27.601 - 12 laps
15. #20 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN* (RENAULT) 1:27.742 - 11 laps
16. #9 MARCUS ERICSSON** (SAUBER-FERRARI) 1:27.435 - 9 laps
17. #12 FELIPE NASR** (SAUBER-FERRARI) 1:27.958 - 6 laps
18. #26 DANIIL KVYAT** (RED BULL-TAG HEUER) 1:28.006 - 5 laps
19. #8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN** (RENAULT) 1:28.322s - 6 laps
20. #21 ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ** (HAAS-FERRARI) 1:29.606s - 6 laps
21. #88 RIO HARYANTO** (MANOR-MERCEDES) 1:29.627s - 3 laps
22. #94 PASCAL WEHRLEIN** (MANOR-MERCEDES) 1:29.642s - 3 laps

*Eliminated after Q2
**Eliminated after Q3