Australian F1 Grand Prix 2019 Qualifying: Saturday's Results, Times, Final Grid

Lewis Hamilton will start in pole position at the 2019 Australian Formula One Grand Prix after he topped qualifying on Saturday at Albert Park.

The Mercedes driver set a new track record of one minute, 20.486 seconds in Melbourne, and he'll start ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

Earlier, the Englishman had gone quickest in the third and final free practice session, having dominated both sessions on Friday.

Qualifying Recap

Here's the final classification from qualifying:

Williams duo George Russell and Robert Kubica propped up the timesheet in Q1—the latter's efforts were hindered by a puncture.

They quickly found their session to be over alongside McLaren's Carlos Sainz, Racing Point's Lance Stroll and Red Bull's Pierre Gasly, who was stuck in the garage when it was brought to a close. Meanwhile, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc went fastest.

In Q2, Renault will have been disappointed to see both Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo fall short.

Toro Rosso pair Alexander Albon and Daniil Kvyat also went out along with Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi, while Lando Norris, on his F1 debut, reached Q3 in his McLaren.

He finished in P8, but all eyes were on Hamilton in Q3:

Despite his remarkable record of securing pole at Albert Park, Hamilton has only won there twice, so he'll be eager to improve in that regard and kick off the new season with a win.

Vettel is the two-time defending champion in Melbourne and has won three times there overall, though, so he could push Hamilton and Bottas all the way.

FP3 Recap

Here are the standings from FP3:

And here's a look at what happened during the session:

Unlike in qualifying, Bottas was a little off the pace in practice in P7. With a couple of trips on to the grass hampering his efforts, he not only finished behind the two Ferrari's, but also Gasly and Haas' Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen.

Kubica capped a disappointing session with a close call on his way to the pits:

As he would in qualifying, the Pole finished in P20 behind his team-mate.

Although they finished behind Hamilton once again, Ferrari showed some promise as his quickest rivals in FP3.