DAMON HILL suffered a humiliating start to the season early this morning as he just managed to qualify for tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix.

The world champion crept onto the back row of the grid in his troubled Arrows-Yamaha, only ensuring he qualified with his penultimate lap.

Hill will start the race from 20th position with only one other driver Tyrrell's Jos Verstappen behind him as Jacques Villeneuve claimed the first pole of the new season.

It was Hill's worst qualifying performance since he failed to qualify for six races when he drove for Brabham in his debut year of 1992.

Hill made the grid with just over half-a-second to spare, although he still had to endure some anxious moments as Villeneuve went for a quicker time in the final seconds that could have put him outside the limit.

For long periods during the hour-long session it looked as though Hill would create history by becoming the first world champion not to qualify for the opening race of the next season.

But he finally made it in a car that has twice stalled during practice sessions this weekend as he dipped under the target time by just two seconds on his penultimate lap.

He gave himself more breathing space next time round but it is still the first time he has been off the front row of the grid in 18 races stretching back to October 1995.

Villeneuve dominated the session as he took his fourth career pole with over 1.7 seconds to spare from Williams Renault team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was third while David Coulthard began the season in promising style with fourth place for McLaren Mercedes.

Ireland's Eddie Irvine was one place back in the other Ferrari with Johnny Herbert an excellent seventh for Sauber.

Newcomers Stewart Grand Prix were celebrating with Rubens Barrichello managing 11th place, though both Lola cars failed to make the grid.

The man accused of stealing Hill's car began the case for his defence yesterday morning. By recording the second fastest time in the opening practice sessions Frentzen made a spirited start to the campaign to justify his position in the Williams-Renault team.

"That's a pretty good effort," Hill himself acknowledged, emerging from his own sweat-soaked labours with the new Arrows-Yamaha to be confronted by the evidence of his usurper's success.

Frentzen, by contrast, still looked fresh at the end of his 27 laps over the Albert Park circuit, giving further evidence of the Williams team's technical superiority. While Hill is trying to drag a team up the grid, Frentzen needs to worry about little more than his choice of tyres. The rest can be left to the engineers, while he gets on with the driving.

As a result, he finished the day less than half a second behind the Ferrari of his old rival Michael Schumacher and the same margin; ahead of his new team-mate, Villeneuve. And, of course, more than two seconds ahead of Hill.

It was too soon to say, however, whether this meant that Frentzen was truly faster than Villeneuve, who has consistently out-run him in pre-season testing and is the championship favourite. As they worked to get the cars into race trim, only the team knew what fuel loads and tyres the two cars were running.

"It's premature to give a serious opinion on Heinz-Harald," Frank Williams said, "but he conducted himself excellently today. He was in control of his car. He's a very hard worker, and he's learning. The progress he made today was logical. I can't say whether he's blindingly quick. We've got no idea yet."

It is Williams whose personal judgment will be measured by Frentzen's success- or failure this season, since it was he who chose to sign the 29-year-old undertakers son from Monchengladbach rather than extend Hill's contract, thereby depriving the Englishman of the chance to defend his world championship.

Frentzen was properly reluctant to overdo the euphoria after his good showing, but saw no reason to disguise his enjoyment of the step up after two seasons in mid-field with the Sauber team. "I'm pleased to be driving for Williams," he said. "It sounds easy to say that, but for me it's a step into a new career and a new life. I've found myself a bit nervous and kind of surprised, sitting in a different car with different people around me."

He had been impressed, he said, to find himself further up the grid for the same amount of effort.