» Hamilton claims thrilling pole at Albert Park

Lewis Hamilton has claimed pole position – the 100th for a Mercedes-powered car – in a thrilling rain-affected qualifying session for the Australian Grand Prix.

The Englishman came out on top in an exciting battle with teammate Nico Rosberg, but the surprise performer was local boy Daniel Ricciardo, who drove outstandingly to secure a front-row start in his first outing for Red Bull Racing.

The result saw Hamilton equal Nigel Mansell’s record of 32 pole positions. His decision to remain on Pirelli’s wet tyres – Ricciardo opted for intermediates – was enough to see him on pole with a terrific final flying lap, edging out Ricciardo for top spot by three-tenths of a second to deny the Australian crowd a fairytale result for their main man.

Rosberg cemented Mercedes’ strong weekend-long pace with the third-fastest time, with Kevin Magnussen securing fourth place on his Grand Prix debut ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

After struggling with braking issues in practice, both Toro Rossos were the surprise achievers in qualifying, with Jean-Éric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat – despite a late biff with the wall in the final minute – qualifying sixth and eighth respectively, sandwiching Nico Hülkenberg, who fell down the timesheets in Q3.

Neither Williams was able to hook it up in Q3 after performing strongly to get into the shootout. Felipe Massa was a distant ninth-fastest, while teammate Valtteri Bottas completed the top-ten, although he’ll take a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Three former champions – Jenson Button, Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel – were all disappointing, although Button and Vettel had Räikkönen to blame after the Finn nosed his Ferrari into the barriers at Turn 3 when he put down too much power exiting the corner. The local yellow flags in the final seconds of Q2 ensured they would be unable to make the final ten, but there could be a number of grid adjustments as several drivers appeared to post personal best sector times.

Adrian Sutil (Sauber) and Sergio Pérez (Force India) qualified fourteenth and sixteenth-fastest, sandwiching Kamui Kobayashi, who put in a sterling effort – helped by the misfortune of some – to make it into Q2 in the little-run Caterham.

Max Chilton was the fastest of the runners to be knocked out in Q1, managing to outqualify teammate Jules Bianchi for just the second time in his career. Esteban Gutiérrez was rather predictably all at sea in his recently repaired Sauber, qualifying just four-hundredths of a second faster than rookie Marcus Ericsson in the second Caterham.

It was an embarrassment of riches for the Lotus pairing of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado, whose E22s handled appallingly in the damp conditions and never had a prayer of making it out of Q1 as the conditions worsened. Grosjean’s sole run came after many had posted lap times in drier conditions, while Maldonado had two off-track moments and aborted his flying lap. He’ll require dispensation from the FIA stewards to start the race, but that’s expected to be a formality.

Sunday’s 58-lap race kicks off at 5:00pm local time.

2014 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix – Qualifying Results Results:

	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:44.231		22
2.	Daniel Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:44.548	+ 0.317	20
3.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:44.595	+ 0.364	21
4.	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:45.745	+ 1.514	19
5.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:45.819	+ 1.588	21
6.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:45.864	+ 1.633	21
7.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:46.030	+ 1.799	20
8.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:47.368	+ 3.137	20
9.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:48.079	+ 3.848	21
10.	Valtteri Bottas^	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:48.147	+ 3.916	19
	Q3 Cut-Off – 1:44.331		Time	Gap	Laps
11.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:44.437	+ 2.173	13
12.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:44.494	+ 2.230	13
13.	Sebastian Vettel	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:44.668	+ 2.404	13
14.	Adrian Sutil	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:45.655	+ 3.391	12
15.	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:45.867	+ 3.603	13
16.	Sergio Pérez	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:47.293	+ 5.029	13
	Q2 Cut-Off – 1:34.274		Time	Gap**	Laps
17.	Max Chilton	Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:34.293	+ 3.518	5
18.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:34.794	+ 4.019	5
19.	Esteban Gutiérrez^	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:35.117	+ 4.342	7
20.	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:35.157	+ 4.382	5
21.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:36.993	+ 6.218	6
	Outside 107% cut-off – 1:37.129		Time	Gap	Laps
DNQ.	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	no time		3