Lewis Hamilton blew his opposition away with a superb lap in qualifying to take his fifth successive pole position in Australia on Saturday, with Ferrari and Red Bull left trailing in the Mercedes driver’s wake. However, there were mixed fortunes for the Silver Arrows, with Vatteri Bottas crashing heavily in Q3 without setting a time, causing the session to be temporarily red-flagged. Kimi Raikkonen outpaced his Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel to join Hamilton on the front row, both ahead of the Red Bulls, with Haas and Renault lining up two-by-two to complete the top 10. Raikkonen and Vettel were the pace-setters in Q1, with all the teams choosing to run the ultrasoft tyres – the softest Pirelli compound available in Melbourne – from the start.