The first race of the 2018 Australian Grand Prix takes place tomorrow, and the grid positions have been decided.
After looking under pressure throughout the Q3 runs, Hamilton managed to race a stunning final lap to officially take pole position by over half a second.
Hamilton had to fight off a determined Sebastian Vettel who had been just 0.034s behind him in the first Q3 laps but had to eventually settle for third behind a very fast Kimi Raikkonen.
Unfortunately, Hamilton’s team mate Bottas hit the inside kerb at Turn 1 and lost control of his car. Crashing out of the qualifying, Bottas may face a grid penalty. Not a good start to his 2018 campaign.
Luckily Bottas was unhurt during his crash, but we will likely see a grid penalty. It was interesting to see Red Bull run a different tyre strategy to Mercedes and Ferrari. They did this in hope of having more tyre longevity in tomorrow’s race, but in doing so, have sacrificed places.
Daniel Ricciardo actually qualified fifth quickest, but sits in 8th position on the grid after a controversial penalty was handed to him after running too quickly under red flag conditions in Friday's practice. As you can imagine, he was extremely angry with this decision.
McLaren had a tough qualification, with both drivers finishing outside of the top 10 with Alonso at 11th, and Vandoorne at 12th. The Renault and Haas teams performed better than expected with top 10 finishes.
As it currently stands, here is the grid positions for the 2018 Australian Grand Prix.
#1: Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes - 1m21.164s
#2: Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari - 1m21.828s
#3: Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari - 1m21.838s
#4: Max Verstappen - Red Bull/Renault - 1m21.879s
#5: Kevin Magnussen - Haas/Ferrari - 1m23.187s
#6: Romain Grosjean - Haas/Ferrari - 1m23.339s
#7: Nico Hulkenberg - Renault - 1m23.532s
#8: Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull/Renault - 1m22.152s
#9: Carlos Sainz - Renault - 1m23.577s
#10: Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes - N/A
#11: Fernando Alonso - McLaren/Renault - 1m23.692s
#12: Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren/Renault - 1m23.853s
#13: Sergio Perez - Force India/Mercedes - 1m24.005s
#14: Lance Stroll - Williams/Mercedes - 1m24.230s
#15: Esteban Ocon - Force India/Mercedes - 1m24.786s
#16: Brendon Hartley - Toro Rosso/Honda - 1m24.532s
#17: Marcus Ericsson - Sauber/Ferrari - 1m24.556s
#18: Charles Leclerc - Sauber/Ferrari - 1m24.636s
#19: Sergey Sirotkin - Williams/Mercedes - 1m24.922s
#20: Pierre Gasly - Toro Rosso/Honda - 1m25.295s
I will be watching live, tomorrow morning on Sky F1 from 6:10am.