Lewis Hamilton swept to the first pole position of 2019 ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas, as Mercedes locked out the front row in dominant style for the season opening Australian Grand Prix. The reigning five-time world champion lapped the 5.3-kilometre long Albert Park in one minute 20.486 seconds in the glorious autumn sunshine, pipping his Finnish teammate by 0.112 seconds. Sebastian Vettel was the closest challenger to the two silver cars but still fell a gaping 0.704 seconds short of Hamilton's benchmark.

Hamilton, complaining of niggles with his right-front brake, had trailed Bottas after the first series of flying laps in the final phase of qualifying as it increasingly began to look like the battle for pole position would be fought out exclusively between the two Mercedes. He pulled out the stops when it really mattered, however, to claim his 84th career pole as well as a sixth in a row and eighth overall in Melbourne, equalling Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher's record of eight poles at a track.