Formula One... Hamilton takes Australian GP pole

Hi Dassyb blog readers and formula One fans.  The exciting sports is back and as usual Hamilton takes Australian GP pole. Lewis Hamilton headed a Mercedes one-two in
final practice at the Australian Grand Prix with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel close behind.
In the first measure of comparative pace between the two best teams in F1, Hamilton was only 0.228 seconds quicker than Vettel in third place. Hamilton's team-mate Nico Rosberg was just 0.052secs quicker than Vettel.
The margins suggest Ferrari have indeed closed the gap on Mercedes over the winter, as was suspected. However, it is still early days - the cars' true pace will not be seen for the first time until qualifying, which starts at 06:00 GMT.
The session will take place under new rules, with a modified elimination format and the slowest car knocked out every 90 seconds after the first half of each of the three sessions.

If Ferrari can maintain that margin, it bodes well for a championship battle between two teams in F1 for the first time since 2012, when Vettel, then at Red Bull, narrowly pipped Fernando Alonso, then at Ferrari. Vettel's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was nearly 0.6secs behind the German - and was knocked down to fifth fastest time by Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard's team-mate Max Verstappen was sixth, ahead of the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. And there was encouragement and definite progress from McLaren-Honda compared to their dismal 2015 as Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button set 11th and 12th fastest times, 1.6secs off the pace. In terms of their deficit to the front, that is an improvement of a second compared to last year.
British novice Jolyon Palmer was 17th quickest for Renault, two places and just over 0.2secs behind team-mate and former McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen. The new Haas team were 18th and 19th fastest, with Mexican Esteban Gutierrez pipping Frenchman Romain Grosjean. Grosjean had a difficult start to the session when Manor's Indonesian novice Rio Haryanto collided with him as he was leaving his pit garage. Grosjean missed the first half of the session as Haas changed his floor as a precaution.
Full results from first, second and third practice are shown below

Third Practice

Albert Park, 19 March 2016

    Driver Fastest Lap

1 Hamilton 1:25.624

2 Rosberg 1:25.800

3 Vettel 1:25.852

4 Sainz Jnr 1:26.257

5 Raikkonen 1:26.435

6 Verstappen 1:26.701

7 Bottas 1:26.730

8 Ricciardo 1:26.768

9 Massa 1:27.151

10 Perez 1:27.242

11 Alonso 1:27.263

12 Button 1:27.341

13 Kvyat 1:27.430

14 Ericsson 1:27.659

15 Magnussen 1:27.871

16 Hulkenberg 1:27.988

17 Palmer 1:28.117

18 Gutierrez 1:28.284

19 Grosjean 1:28.292

20 Nasr 1:28.293

21 Wehrlein 1:29.046

22 Haryanto 1:29.272

Second Practice

Albert Park, 18 March 2016

    Driver Fastest Lap

1 Hamilton 1:38.841

2 Hulkenberg 1:39.308

3 Raikkonen 1:39.486

4 Ricciardo 1:39.535

5 Sainz Jnr 1:39.694

6 Alonso 1:39.895

7 Button 1:40.008

8 Vettel 1:40.761

9 Perez 1:41.256

10 Kvyat 1:42.411

11 Gutierrez 1:42.891

12 Wehrlein 1:43.401

13 Grosjean 1:43.731

14 Haryanto 1:44.304

15 Rosberg 1:47.356

16 Magnussen

17 Palmer

18 Massa

19 Bottas

20 Ericsson

21 Nasr

22 Verstappen

First Practice

Albert Park, 18 March 2016

    Driver Fastest Lap

1 Hamilton 1:29.725

2 Kvyat 1:30.146

3 Ricciardo 1:30.875

4 Hulkenberg 1:31.325

5 Verstappen 1:31.720

6 Rosberg 1:31.814

7 Alonso 1:33.060

8 Button 1:33.129

9 Perez 1:33.370

10 Magnussen 1:34.060

11 Bottas 1:34.550

12 Massa 1:34.679

13 Nasr 1:34.796

14 Palmer 1:35.477

15 Ericsson 1:37.956

16 Wehrlein 1:40.401

17 Raikkonen 1:40.754

18 Gutierrez 1:41.780

19 Haryanto 1:43.372

20 Grosjean 1:43.443

21 Vettel

22 Sainz Jnr

Summary

Hamilton on pole, Rosberg 2nd, Vettel 3rd, Raikkonen 4th

New qualifying elimination format ends with no cars on the track

Format comes under criticism as drivers choose not to respond to times set

Kvyat out in Q1, McLarens out in Q2, Toro Rossos in Q3