F1 Paddock Notebook - Australian GP Saturday

- Lewis Hamilton’s pole position time of 1:21.164 broke his own previous track record at Albert Park in Melbourne that stood from F1 last year. Hamilton’s 2018 pole time was more than a second faster than his 2017 effort.

- Hamilton also became the outright pole position record holder for the Australian Grand Prix, taking his seventh pole in Melbourne. Hamilton had previously been tied with Ayrton Senna on six Australia poles.

- Hamilton became the first recipient of the new ‘Pirelli Pole Position Award’, a trophy that is a hand cut wind-tunnel Pirelli tyre signed by Hamilton, in a move showing Liberty’s push for greater partner presence in F1.

- There was some debate after qualifying about the ‘party mode’ used by Hamilton at the end of qualifying, with the Briton stressing he did not make any tuning changes between Q2 and Q3. However, team boss Toto Wolff said there was a change in modes between the sessions, but said Hamilton was in the same mode for his first and second runs in Q3 as his advantage grew by more than six-tenths of a second.

- Hamilton and Vettel’s exchange in the post-session press conference ended in laughter courtesy of a somewhat uninterested Kimi Raikkonen. During their ‘party mode’ chat, Hamilton joked that “Kimi parties all the time”, only for the Finn to not react or even acknowledge what he said. Watch it here.

- Red Bull drives Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo will start tomorrow’s race on the Supersoft tyre after opting to complete Q2 on the middle compound for this weekend. The rest of the Q3 qualifiers will all start on Ultrasofts.

- Ricciardo drops from P5 to P8 on the grid for the start of tomorrow's race following his penalty for failing to slow enough for red flags during FP2 on Friday.

- Most are predicting tomorrow’s race to be a one-stopper, although a high chance of a Safety Car could change things up.

- Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean swept to the team’s best qualifying result in F1, securing P5 and P6 on the grid for Sunday’s race. It marked only the second time Haas had managed to get both its cars through to Q3.

- Renault drivers Carlos Sainz Jr. and Nico Hulkenberg both said they were closer to Haas than they expected to be, with Sainz in particular lamenting a poor final lap. An uncomfortable Hulkenberg had to change seats during his press session, saying: “This chair has no balance… a bit like my car!”

- Valtteri Bottas was taken to the medical centre following his crash in Q3, but was quickly checked and cleared. The Finn is expected to start 15th tomorrow due to a gearbox change following the shunt.

- Lance Stroll enjoyed an edge of half a second over teammate Sergey Sirotkin in qualifying, making it through to Q2. The Canadian was left lamenting a poor final run in Q2, though, feeling he could have outqualified Sergio Perez. Stroll will start 13th tomorrow.

- Sirotkin will make his first grand prix start tomorrow, becoming the third Russian F1 driver after Vitaly Petrov and Daniil Kvyat. Asked if tomorrow was the biggest day of his career so far, Sirotkin said: “It depends how you look at it. To be honest, I wouldn’t say so. Of course it’s going to be exciting to be on the grid, but maybe it would be more exciting not to be on the last row.” He’ll start P19.

- Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe said the team was about where it expected to be after pre-season testing, running “sixth- or seventh-fastest”, having outqualified Toro Rosso, Sauber and one of the Force Indias.

- Pierre Gasly was left to rue a lock-up at Turn 3 during his final Q1 lap that left him P20 at the end of the session. Gasly claims to have been two-tenths up on Hartley - who missed out on Q2 by just 0.029 seconds - by that stage on the track. “I didn't do any [mistakes] this year so far and I do one on the fucking first qualifying of the year,” Gasly said. “I'm so upset.”

- The Australian Grand Prix Corporation reported an estimated crowd figure of 73,500 for Saturday’s running in Melbourne, with fans also being treated to three GT support races and the second and third rounds of the new Supercars season.