Hamilton beats Bottas taking Australian GP pole

MELBOURNE - Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes took the Australian Grand Prix pole from his teammate Valtteri Bottas with a new track record in the qualifying held on Saturday afternoon.

Hamilton clocked the lap record of Albert Park with a one minute and 20.486 seconds, and recorded his sixth consecutive pole at the circuit and a record-equaling eighth at the Australian Grand Prix. Hamilton also won every practice session before entering the qualifying.

Sebastian Vettel from Ferrari, who enjoyed victory in Australia for the past two years, qualified in third, 0.704 seconds behind the five-time world champion. His teammate Charles Leclerc ranked fifth, narrowly after Max Verstappen from the Red Bull.

Robert Kubica, who just returned to F1 eight years after suffering severe injuries in a rally crash, suffered a puncture at end of Q1 and were out with his Williams teammate George Russell.

Land Norris successfully entered the Q3 in his first ever F1 qualifying session while his McLaren teammate Carlos Sainz dropped out in Q1.

Local favorite Daniel Ricciardo finished up in the 12th in Q2 and was unable to make it into Q3 on his first qualifying outing for Renault.