Lewis Hamilton kicked off his Formula One 2017 qualifying campaign by taking pole position in the Australian Grand Prix, comfortably seeing off the challenge from the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas.
Full driver and team guide for the F1 2017 season
After breezing through Q1 and Q2, Hamilton came out early in Q3, and set the tone with a quick time.
The Brit, though, then needed a flying lap of 122.188 right at the end to lock up that pole position, going quicker than his Mercedes teammate Bottas, who had, just for a few seconds, gone first.
Bottas (122.481) then quickly went one more place down to third, as Ferrari's Vettel (122.456) scorched the lap to take second place and sandwich the two Mercedes drivers.
Ferrari are the team expected to give Mercedes, and particularly Hamilton, a run for their money this season, and they look like contenders for Sunday, with Vettel showing his pace.
Kimi Raikkonen, the other Ferrari driver, will start in fourth, with Max Verstappen set to start in the third row after setting the fifth fastest time in qualifying.
Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Ricciardo, driving in his home GP, had a Q3 to forget, after the Australian crashed his car while going for a flying lap, which put him in tenth place. It could get worse for Ricciardo if he is forced to change his gearbox.
Force India's two drivers – Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon p—could not get into Q3. Ocon will start in 14th, while Perez, who began the qualifying session in Q1 quite well, just missed out on a chance to get into Q3, and will start the Australian GP race on Sunday in eleventh.
Get the full timesheets and qualifying results HERE
