F1 news: Toto Wolff conflicted after Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas qualifying session

Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton ended the day on pole, fending off main challenger Sebastian Vettel.

The 32-year-old recorded a record-breaking lap in Melbourne, which impressed Wolff.

But for team-mate Valtteri Bottas, it was a disappointing day.

The Finn suffered a heavy crash in Q3 which leaves him in 15th place for Sunday's race.

And Wolff was left with contrasting emotions heading into the season opener.

"That was an unbelievable final lap from Lewis to see him find so much pace," he said.

“We didn’t change anything on the car from the first run of Q3, it was just a case of Lewis putting all the pieces together and finding the limit on that last lap, with everything on the line; and this is the result, a really impressive pole position to start the new season.”

“It’s a garage of contrasting emotions today with a really unfortunate end to qualifying for Valtteri.

“It was a big hit and the boys will have a long job list to get the car ready to race.

“It’s now about putting the incident behind him [Bottas] and recovering as strongly as possible.

"We expect a very close race between the top three teams tomorrow; there is still a lot to do if we want to score a strong result in the race."

Hamilton joked that he wanted to 'wipe the smile off Vettel's face' during a tense press conference on Saturday.

And the four-time world champion will get the chance at 6.10am UK time.