Hamilton storms to Australian GP pole

The Briton beat Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg by nearly six tenths of a second, as the German was left powerless to match the world champion's pace.

Felipe Massa qualified in third for Williams, making it three Mercedes engines in the top three positions, although the Brazilian was over a second behind Hamilton.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was fourth in his first qualifying with the Italian squad, ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen and the second Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

Local hero Daniel Ricciardo had to be content with seventh place in the off-the-pace Red Bull.

Toro Rosso's rookie Carlos Sainz put on a solid performance in his first ever qualifying session, the Spaniard making into Q3 and finishing in eighth position ahead of the Lotus of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado.

Despite missing the first practice session, Sauber's Felipe Nasr had an impressive debut, just missing the cut to go into Q3. The Brazilian will start from 11th position, ahead of the second Toro Rosso of Max Verstappen.

Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat had a disappointing first qualifying with his new team, the Russian finishing 13th ahead of the Force Indias of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez.

McLaren suffered the embarrassment of qualifying last with both Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen, both knocked out in Q1 after being beaten by the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson, who was the third driver not to make the cut.

Button, who admitted on Friday he was hoping not to qualify on the last row of the grid, beat teammate Magnussen, but was still a full second off making it into Q2.

It will be the first time in its history that the Woking-based team has both its cars starting from the final row of the grid.

Despite working flat out to try to get their cars ready in time, the Manor team did not take to the track in qualifying either, meaning it will be unable to take part in the race tomorrow.