Hamilton praises Mercedes for continually raising the bar

Lewis Hamilton conquered his 50th career pole in Melbourne, thus admitting himself to the exclusive '50 and over' club of which Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher are the other only exclusive members.

With Formula 1's new truncated qualifying format providing no incentive to do battle in Q3 for the top runners as most drivers decided to save their tyres, Hamilton was left with only Rosberg to contend with.

Still, the reigning World Champion was delighted to kick off his 2016 campaign with his 50th pole.

"I just really have to take my hat off to this team and what they’ve done to raise the bar once more in our third year," Hamilton said

"It inspires me, it motivates me and I really enjoyed driving the car today in qualifying, got the setup just right. Those were some sexy laps, they felt so good, just flowing and no real mistakes.

"That’s really all you can hope for as a driver, to always improve and that’s what we did today."

Despite his head's start, the Mercedes driver will be focused on doing his home work with the team later today as they prepare for tomorrow's race.

"There is a lot of work to do tonight, obviously with these radio changes there’s obviously less communication so there’s a lot more studying that goes on in terms of remembering the sequences, the strategies changing throughout the race...

"Maybe we'll have to guess if it could be a two or three or whatever stops we’re doing. I’m excited, I think it’s a new thing and think that we are all in the same boat. I hope that it adds to the spectacle tomorrow, I highly doubt it but we shall see."

On the subject of how qualifying unfolded and how fans were deprived of any crescendo or tension, Hamilton explained that the disappointing outcome had been widely anticipated, and first and foremost by his own team.

"All my engineers said that this was going to be the case. But the FIA, or whoever, ignored them. For me, it just proves how smart my engineers are.

"I don't have the solution, but we all make mistakes. Ultimately, this is perhaps a step in the wrong direction. I wouldn't say let's go back to the old way because we had it for years, but let's take a step back and see if there's another route that's more exciting.

"And let's find out what the fans want. I'd advise they all start messaging in to Formula 1, or to whoever, and say 'this is how we want it'."

As it happened: Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix

F1i's Australian Grand Prix preview

2016 F1 season: Team-by-team preview