Hamilton takes Aus pole in dull quali session

Lewis Hamilton secured his 50th career pole position today ahead of Nico Rosberg for tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix.

The defending world champion has been the fastest driver all weekend and held off Rosberg by 0.3s in the new qualifying rules' debut.

Sebastian Vettel will start third, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, while Max Verstappen starts fifth.

However, the talk will all be about the new rules which has been labelled a "rubbish" by Mercedes' Toto Wolff.

Drivers are eliminated every 90 seconds under the new rukes, but they consistently misjudged the situation and sat in the pits while the time ticked away.

There are already calls for the previous rules to be reinstated for the next race in Bahrain.

On track, Ferrari disappointed as they struggled to live with Mercedes' pace - in another blow ahead of the first race.

Vettel and Raikkonen have made a step forward, but the gap remains about one second a lap in qualifying, although Vettel expects to be closer tomorrow.

Valtteri Bottas and Daniil Kvyat were the major victims in qualifying, as Bottas starts 11th and Kvyat 18th.

Jolyon Palmer will start 14th on is debut for Renault, directly behind McLaren pair Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.

See full 2016 Australian F1 Grand Prix results.

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