But it was a nightmare afternoon for Australia's local hero Daniel Ricciardo, who speared off the track at turn 14 while he was attempting to set his quickest time in the final ten minutes of the hour long qualifying session.

The ever smiling Red Bull Racing driver was unhurt but could hardly hide his disappointment as he told his pit crew "sorry guys" over the radio before exiting his stricken car. As a result of his off track excursion the session was halted for several minutes and he was classified tenth.

"I'm physically OK but emotionally a bit disappointed. At least [the crash] didn't happen in Q1," he was quoted as saying shortly afterwards.

However damage to the car's rear suspension may force his team to change his gearbox, which carries a five place grid penalty.

Hamilton had arrived on Saturday declaring he was here for only one thing, to win and get his campaign to regain the world title he lost last year to his former team-mate, Nico Rosberg, off to a flying start.

He had set the pace on Friday although Ferrari star Sebastian Vettel had been quickest in the third practice session earlier on Saturday.

The German showed with a sharp final qualifying lap of his own that his pace was no illusion, and he was quick enough to snare second spot and grab a front row position.

The four-time world champion just edged out Hamilton's Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who was third quickest, with Vettel's Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen fourth, ensuring an enthralling battle between the Italian and German teams in the first race of the new campaign.

Ricciardo's Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen was best of the rest in fifth, ahead of Haas driver Romain Grosjean. Brazilian veteran Felipe Massa, who has returned from a short retirement, was a solid seventh in his "return" to the sport.

Hamilton declared himself satisfied with his day's work but fully aware of the task ahead of him now that the Ferraris look like delivering on the promise they showed in winter testing.

"It's quite amazing to come here and set a time like this . . . it's such a massive challenge (tomorrow)," he said.

"It definitely didn't start out the best day for me . . . but as it got to qualifying it felt a lot better.

"We can always try to improve, the laps are never perfect. Now it's about focusing and doing our homework tonight."

Vettel, another former winner of the Melbourne race, certainly looks up for the contest.

"We are working well as a team, it's nice to see, " he declared, although he said he wasn't entirely happy with his best lap.

He was, he said "confident that the car was there from testing and we showed it there today. I would have loved to get pole . . . but tomorrow I think we can do something in the race. It's been a big winter for us, a lot of change."

Bottas was making his debut for Mercedes, and the Finn said he was disappointed not to be at least sharing the front row with his team-mate.

"Third position is not ideal. In general I am not happy in the result, but I am really proud of what the team has done with this car.

"I think it will be very close this year. I didn't get any perfect laps in, but tomorrow is the day that matters. As soon as the race starts we will be quite strong."

Great credit must go to young Italian Antonio Giovinazzi, the first driver from his country to race in F1 since veteran Jarno Trulli retired.

Giovinazzi only sat in the Sauber for the first time on Saturday afternoon when he took part in the third practice session after Sauber's front line driver Pascal Wehrlein, decided he was not fit enough to take part following his Friday experience.

The 23-year-old Ferrari junior driver made an immediate impression and despite his lack of experience managed to qualify the Sauber 16th on the grid, with four of his rivals in arrears.

Australian GP debutants Stoffel Vandoorne and Lance Stroll were also behind Giovinazzi, the latter starting the first qualifying session late after crashing his Williams into the wall in the third practice session earlier in the afternoon.

Williams mechanics worked feverishly to get the car repaired in time for the teenage Canadian to even take part, but he found his first F1 qualifying session a fairly character building exercise.

And veteran Fernando Alonso showed that form - or perhaps poor equipment - might be temporary but class is permanent.

The Spaniard, a dual world champion more than a decade ago in 2005 and 2006, has endured a nightmare in recent seasons because of the lack of competitiveness of his McLaren.

His team had little expectation coming into this season opener and were bracing themselves to be eliminated in the first session, but Alonso managed to push his car into 13th position, far better than forecast.