Ferrari had the pace in F1 testing, but once the action got underway they were playing second fiddle

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Lewis Hamilton went scorched Earth around Albert Park to claim a historic pole position, leaving his longtime rival in utter disbelief.What just happened?

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel could not hide his shock after Mercedes capped a stunning turnaround from testing to leave the Formula 1 field in their wake at Australian Grand Prix qualifying.

Even Lewis Hamilton was surprised when the five-time world champion set a new track record to claim a record equalling eighth pole at Albert Park ahead of Sunday’s season opener.

He pipped Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas by one tenth of a second but was more than half a second ahead of Vettel, who had set a scorching pace at recent testing in Spain.

Title dark horse, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, was nearly a full second adrift of Hamilton in fourth.

“Mercedes smashed them to bits,” claimed Sky F1’s Martin Brundle.

“Mercedes have absolutely thrashed Ferrari and Red Bull.”

Australia’s Renault star Daniel Ricciardo fared even worse and will start from 12th on the 20-strong grid on Sunday.“I’m certainly surprised, I think everybody is, probably even themselves (Mercedes),” four-time world champion Vettel said.

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“For sure there’s some homework for us to do and to understand.

“The car felt really good at testing, and probably around here, so far this weekend, it didn’t feel as good yet.

“Mercedes are the clear favourites after the result today and the pace they have shown so far,”

Asked what went wrong, Vettel said: “I think it’s a little bit of everything (that’s missing).

“I don’t think straight line (speed) is a problem. I think we are quite competitive on the straights but I think we are losing in the corners.

“And there are 16 corners around here.”

Hamilton couldn’t believe his good fortune after nabbing his sixth straight pole with his first Australian GP win since 2015 — and third overall — now firmly in his sights.

“We really had no idea that we would have this performance (after testing) — we thought we would be behind,” he said.Perhaps the best gauge of Mercedes’ remarkable qualifying display was their usually unflappable team boss Toto Wolff’s reaction.

“I’m overwhelmed. It really didn’t look like this at all (at testing),” he said.

Still, Vettel was backing himself to win a third straight Australian GP after overcoming similar odds to upstage Hamilton in the past at Albert Park.

“Tomorrow is another day, and we have done it (bounced back) before, especially here,” he said.