Qualifying
Official qualifying became a battle royal between the Williamses of Rosberg and Nigel Mansell, and the Lotus of Ayrton Senna. Rosberg took the honors on Friday with a lap of 1:22.402, only 0.001 faster then Senna, with Mansell a further 0.161 back in 3rd. During final qualifying, Mansell looked to have pole position wrapped up with a lap of 1:20.537, with Senna second with Rosberg another 3/10th further back in third. Senna was out on his third run with only minutes left before the end of qualifying in his Lotus 97T, powered by a special qualifying Renault engine rumored to be putting out some 1,150 bhp (858 kW; 1,166 PS), and stunned everyone with a time of 1:19.843, 7/10ths faster than Mansell to grab his 7th pole position of the season.
Nelson Piquet was 4th on the grid in his Brabham-BMW, World Champion elect Alain Prost was 5th in his McLaren-TAG Porsche, with the Ferrari of 1985 World Championship runner up Michele Alboreto rounding out the top six qualifiers. Outgoing World Champion Niki Lauda was 16th on the grid in his McLaren, while Alan Jones was 19th in his Lola.
The slowest qualifier for the race, Huub Rothengatter in the Osella-Alfa Romeo, was 10.473 seconds slower than Senna with a time of 1:30.319.
Read more about this topic: 1985 Australian Grand Prix