Mercedes qualifying mode "a punch in the stomach" - Ricciardo

Hamilton was on provisional pole after the opening runs in the final segment, but his time looked within reach for rivals, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull's Max Verstappen both sat less than a tenth off.

Yet the reigning champion then found nine tenths on his second and final flyer in Q3, to end up on pole position by a mammoth 0.664s.

While Hamilton has insisted his final-lap improvement was not down to a switch to a faster engine mode, Ricciardo admitted the way Mercedes was able to turn up the power for qualifying was disheartening.

"That sucks," said the Red Bull driver, who finished almost a second off in fifth and will start the Australian GP eighth due to a grid penalty.

"It's frustrating cause, I'm over it, I think everyone else wants to see them [Mercedes] get challenged a bit more, so that was a little bit of a punch in the stomach to everyone.

"I know that obviously they're loving it, they're in a good position, but everyone else is hating it.

"Hopefully we can catch up, hopefully in the race they don't have as much of that, cause that's a bit scary, that mode they've got."

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Mercedes finding extra speed in Q3 to pull away from rivals has been a recurring theme in the current F1 era, but Ricciardo conceded the step in performance was bigger than expected this time.

"I didn't expect that much," he said. "Particularly, like, from Q2 to Q3. I knew they had a bit more, I expected them to be more than two tenths quicker than us.

"Yeah, that was like throwing a pie in everyone's face. Look, they can do it, they're obviously the ones that are leading, I know it would be nice to be in that position, but for everyone else it sucks."

Hamilton, who leads F1 all-time rankings in poles for both the Australian GP and overall, felt his lap was "as close as it gets" to perfection.

And while Ricciardo stressed he didn't want to "discredit" the Briton's performance, he reckoned that any of F1's leading drivers would've eased to pole in the W09.

"I think he's very good - but I think obviously their car and their package is too good.

"It's not to discredit Lewis, not at all. But I think even him at 90 percent with that package that they had today, he still would've got pole.

"So that's where it's like, I feel any of us top guys obviously could've made that happen [in the Mercedes].

"But the buffer they had then was... yeah, a little bit disheartening I guess. But we've got to try and figure it out."

Additional reporting by Adam Cooper