Hamilton fastest in pre-qualifying practice at Australian GP

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claimed a record-breaking pole position for the Formula One season-opening race at the Australia Grand Prix with a dominant performance in Saturday's qualifying.

Last season's F1 champion set a time of 1 minute, 26.327 seconds at the Albert Park circuit, six-tenths of a second faster than teammate Nico Rosberg, as Mercedes locked out the front row.

It was Hamilton's fourth pole in Australia, the first driver to reach that mark.

Williams driver Felipe Massa qualified third, ahead of Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

It was a day to forget for McLaren - the most successful team in the race's history. Its two cars qualified on the last row of the grid as the team struggles with its new Honda engine.