Hamilton takes controversial pole at Australian Grand Prix
Published:
Lewis Hamilton has grabbed pole position in the Australian Grand Prix after a strong performing in qualifying earlier today.
The Brit impressed to beat teammate Nico Rosberg by 0.360 seconds and is the 1/2 favourite for the race, with Rosberg second at 5/2.
Australia has always been a good course for Hamilton and it should come as no surprise that he performed so strongly again.
The 31-year-old drive now has five poles down under and is only one away from matching the legendary Aryton Senna.
However, that was not the main talking point of the day, with Formula One fans getting to see how the new qualifying system worked for the first time.
Quite simply, it didn’t.
The new elimination format meant that the track was empty for the last five minutes of qualifying and big name stars, such as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikonen, in the sport were out of action early.
Vettel, who is priced at 6/1 to win the race, was one of the many big names in Formula One to criticise the new set up
“I don’t see why everyone is surprised it didn’t work.
“It is a bit busier at the beginning of the session but for no reason.
“People want to see us pushing to the limit at the end of the session.
“It is the wrong way to go and that’s what we said,” he asserted.
Rosberg echoed these sentiments, saying: “It’s good to try something but it hasn’t worked – so we should go back.”
Controversy aside, Hamilton showed real quality and could have even gone faster and it’s hard to imagine the Mercedes man being caught in the race.
Indeed, the Brit was so impressive that punters who want to earn some cash would be sensible to back him to get a hat-trick at 6/4.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
