Lewis Hamilton began his 2018 title defense with the most emphatic display of driver supremacy as he stormed to pole position by over half-a-second. Qualifying is the preface of the Grand Prix weekend, the ending is only written on the last lap of Sunday’s race. With Hamilton at the wheel, Mercedes has a significant advantage.

With few technical changes for 2018 Mercedes have been given the luxury of continuing to develop even more superiority. However, Hamilton’s teammate crashed out of qualifying as spectacularly as Hamilton secured pole position. Hamilton sits ahead of a Ferrari pack, Kimi Raikkonen wasn’t as much chasing but howling with self-pity at just how fast the Mercedes/Hamilton combo is. Sebastian Vettel is perched in third. The Red Bull’s of Verstappen and Ricciardo were next up followed by the Ferrari powered Hass F1 Team, behind them are the two Renault works cars driven by Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg. By default Valtteri Bottas rounded off the top 10, the top six drivers are separated by just over a second. So, while Hamilton’s single lap pace was probably down to the driver as much as the car team Mercedes may well have to fight it out during Sunday’s race, whatever the weather might bring. One team that also needs to fight is McLaren, while the switch from Honda to Renault hasn’t fully resovled reliability it has at least moved the team a few places further up the grid for this year. However, Alonso narrowly missed on joining Q3 and feels there is still more speed to be unlocked from the McLaren chassis. Meanwhile, Honda-powered Torro Rosso could only manage 16th and 20th on the grid, for Honda reliability is no longer an issue, lack of speed remains a problem.