Summary

  • Hamilton on pole, Rosberg 2nd, Vettel 3rd, Raikkonen 4th

  • New qualifying elimination format ends with no cars on the track

  • Format comes under criticism as drivers choose not to respond to times set

  • Kvyat out in Q1, McLarens out in Q2, Toro Rossos in Q3

  • Race live on 5 live and online on Sunday from 03:30 GMT

Live Reporting

Gary Rose

  1. Rain on its way?

    Jennie Gow is reporting a few spots of rain down in the pitlane. Can the weather hold for the remaining 43 minutes?

  3. Tom Clarkson
    BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter in Melbourne

    "Red Bull are doing a qualifying sim. I think we will see Mercedes and Ferrari do a quicker lap later in the session."

  5. Times have been set by everyone apart from Romain Grosjean, who is still in the Haas garage as the team work on his damaged car.

    Daniil Kvyat has clocked the fastest lap of the weekend so far, a 1:28.231 putting him just 0.011s ahead of his Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. Sebastian Vettel (+2.219) is third, with Nico Rosberg (+2.666) and Lewis Hamilton (+2.671) fourth and fifth respectively.

  7. Spin!

    Fernando Alonso spins coming out of the penultimate corner. Top recovery work by the McLaren man, who stops the spin with him facing the right way and off he goes again. Sergio Perez spins as well a little later, all the drivers exploring the limits of the track.

    Fernando AlonsoEPA

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    Favourite Melbourne memories

    Tom Clarkson
    BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter in Melbourne

    F1Getty Images

    "My favourite Melbourne memories? I enjoyed the first race back in 1996 and I enjoyed the controversy of 1998 when David Coulthard let Mika Hakkinen through."

  9. Seven times on the board, with Nico Hulkenberg leading the way with 1:31.196. He's half a second ahead of Max Verstappen. No flying lap yet from either Mercedes.

  11. It was very much a low speed impact - more frustrating than anything for both Rio Haryanto and Romain Grosjean. Their respective cars have been wheeled back to their garage and Grosjean is out of his Haas and shaking his head. Looks furious.

    Meanwhile, there is, as expected, plenty of cars on the track - on a mixture of soft and supersoft tyres - no sign of the Red Bulls yet though.

  12. Jennie Gow
    BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter

    "A bit of front wing damage to Rio's car. Grosjean has sustained the most damage, there is a big chunk out of his front wing."

  13. Go! Go! Go!

    Sebastian Vettel leads out the cars, but shenanigans already! Rio Haryanto has lamped his Manor into Romain Grosjean's Haas in the pitlane!

  14. How's the weather?

  15. Daniel Ricciardo, sporting an impressive pencil moustache, is getting strapped into his Red Bull. Everyone else is also in their cars ready to go.

    It's about to get very busy...

    Daniel RicciardoReuters

  16. 'Rosberg needs to come out fighting'

    Jennie Gow
    BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter in Melbourne

    "I have spoken to a few of the teams about what they expect to happen in FP2 and it is going to be full on action. Nico Rosberg needs a good day. He crashed in FP2. He needs to come back fighting hard." 

  17. Busy, busy, busy

    Tom Clarkson
    BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter in Melbourne

    "We are down to a two-day grand prix weekend. Teams have to do their long runs and race preparations in this one hour of final practice and we then have this amazing new qualifying format later."

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  19. Mr (bits of) blue sky

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    Memorable Melbourne moments

    MelbourneGetty Images

    Formula 1 has been coming to Melbourne for 20 years now, where does the time go?

    What's your most memorable moments from the race weekend? 

    From the dramatic like the 2002 first corner crash, to the bizarre like Arnold Schwarzenegger's podium interviews.

    Arnold SchwarzeneggerGetty Images