World champion Lewis Hamilton grabbed pole position for the Australian Grand Prix by six-tenths of a second from Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg on Saturday.

Hamilton set the pace with 1min 26.419sec midway through the final qualifying shoot-out and he lowered the time to 1:26.327 in the final seconds.

Williams’ Felipe Massa was third fastest followed by Sebastien Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in the two Ferraris, while home favourite Daniel Ricciardo was seventh for Red Bull.

McLaren, who struggled pre-season and have Fernando Alonso out after a crash in testing, suffered a nightmare outing with Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen at the back of the grid.