News Digest

Hamilton storms to record fourth pole position for Australian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton claimed a record-breaking fourth pole position at the Australian Grand Prix and Mercedes continued its dominance of Formula One by locking out the front row for Sunday’s season-opening race with another peerless performance in Saturday’s qualifying. Hamilton (pictured), last season’s champion driver, set a time of 1 minute, 26.327 seconds at the Albert Park circuit; six-tenths of a second faster than teammate Nico Rosberg, as Mercedes made it a one-two in qualifying for the ninth consecutive race dating back to last season. Mercedes’ performance underscored the significant edge the team retains heading into the new season after an all-conquering 2014.

I’ve worked hard with the engineers yesterday and today to find a good balance. Then, in the session, I just tried to push hard and put the pieces together. It’s so much fun when it works right, because this is the competition that I live for.

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton’s time was 1.4 seconds faster than third-place Felipe Massa of Williams - a giant margin in F1 terms. Their dominance was summed up by Massa, who grinned as he said: “They are in a different category.” The Briton’s race performances in Australia have not measured up to his qualifying efforts, with his last win in Melbourne coming in 2008. Last year, he started from pole but a misfiring engine resulted in his retirement after just two laps. Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen qualified in fourth and fifth, ahead of Valtteri Bottas of Williams. The two teams were closely matched as the best of the rest behind an out-of-reach Mercedes.

I didn’t get my laps together today. I’m not worried about pace at all. Maybe I can turn it around tomorrow. On Friday in the long runs I was very strong.

Nico Rosberg