But Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas arguably could not have picked a worse moment to slam into the wall at Australian Grand Prix qualifying in Melbourne.

The off contract Bottas had been told by team chief Toto Wolff that his future at the world champions would be assessed early in the new F1 season, with speculation Australia's Daniel Ricciardo is in line to snatch his prized seat.

Desperate to impress, Bottas instead infuriated Wolff with a nightmare start when he came off turn two in final qualifying at Albert Park and smashed into the wall at 110 km/h ensuring a long night in the Mercedes garage before Sunday's season opener.

While cleared of injury, Bottas' day got worse when he was hit with a five place grid penalty that relegated him to 15th spot for the 58-lap grand prix.

Bottas, 28, had provisionally qualified 10th but was slapped with the grid penalty as punishment for his team being forced to replace his gearbox, which is against F1 rules before a race.

Adding to Bottas' pain, teammate and four-time world champion Lewis Hamilton had no such problems in his Mercedes and clocked a stunning lap record to secure a seventh pole position at Melbourne.

Wolff appeared furious in the team garage when Bottas crashed and was seen cursing and punching the air in frustration.

Wolff put on a more stoic front afterwards for reporters.

"It is a garage of contrasting emotions today with a really unfortunate end to qualifying for Valtteri," he said.

"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 and recovering as strongly as possible."

The early signs were good for the ex-Williams driver after keeping pace with two-time Australian Grand Prix champ Hamilton in the opening two qualifying sessions on Saturday.

However early in the third and final session disaster struck after he came out of turn one too fast, ran wide and lost control.

"I went wide in turn one and the kerb was still a bit damp, so I lost the rear of the car and hit the wall outside of turn two," Bottas told reporters.

"It's very unfortunate and I feel sorry for the team because we have a really competitive car.

"It looked like it was damaged pretty badly, so I really hope we can fix it for the race."

Australian Associated Press