It certainly seems that Hamilton is enjoying driving without traction control having put his car on pole for the Australian Grand Prix with a time of 1:26.714. After getting out of the car he said that he was delighted to get his 7th Formula 1 pole but knows that he can go faster… If that’s the case then Raikkonen certainly has his hands full having suffered fuel pump problems in Q2, and only being able to get his car to 16th place on the grid.

The real surprise of qualifying was Kubica in the BMW Sauber; having spent much of last season waiting for scraps thrown to them when a Ferrari or McLaren failed to finish the 2008 BMW looked exceedingly quick as the Pole managed to put his car on the front row of the grid even though he made a mistake during his final run.

It was also great to see the final run cut to 10 minutes, getting rid of those tedious fuel burning laps. The first five minutes of Q3 last season didn’t exactly make anyone’s job easier when they were arguing against Formula 1 being a procession of expenive cars.

Alonso may not publicly admit that he would prefer to be in a McLaren at the moment but the 2008 Renault seems no quicker than last year’s. The Spaniard could do no better than 12th while his team-mate will be on the back row of the grid at the sart of the Grand Prix. Piquet does look as though he is struggling to get the best out of the car – whether this is a matter of nerves/inexperience is unclear, whatever it is Alonso will be revelling in the fact that he has a little peace and quiet from his team-mate.

Unless Raikkonen can make an exceptional start and get up to the front early he may well spend much of the race without ever seeing Hamilton or the front runners which is unlucky for him but also means that we won’t see the duo go head-to-head for a while yet.

Interesting fact of qualifying? The front row of Hamilton and Kubica is the youngest ever; the duo have a combined age of only 46 years. Also Piquet qualified in exactly the same position as his father did in his first Grand Prix – 21st position.