Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel laid down a mark to the rest of the field as he secured his first pole position of the season by other seven tenths of a second. It was a totally dominant performance from the young German, who didn’t even use the KERS system, so had four tenths of a second in hand. His nearest challenger was Lewis Hamilton in the radically improved Mclaren, who did a superb job splitting the Red Bull's as Mark Webber lined up a disappointing third at his home Grand prix. Webber, like Vettel, ran without KERS suggesting an internal problem at Red Bull. Their lack of KERS means both Red Bulls are vulnerable at the start and could be swamped on the run down to the first corner. Hamilton's team mate Jenson Button lined up fourth to secure a result that seemed inconceivable throughout winter resting. The start may be their only chance to get in front of the Red Bulls, though, given the dominance of Vettel in qualifying and the undoubted speed Webber has in his RB7. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso seemed alarmingly off the pace and ended up fifth fastest while his team mate Felipe Massa typified the team's tyre issues with a spin in Q3 and could only salvage eighth on the grid.
Nick Heidfeld was the surprise departure in Q1, eliminated along with the Lotus, Virgin and Hispania cars. Hispania's woes continued after the session: both cars failed to beat the 107% qualifying time and so the stewards decided not to allow them to race tomorrow. This is a bitter blow for both Narain Karthikeyan and Vitantonio Liuzzi. Despite being the fastest of the 'new' teams, Lotus were disappointing; although they had six tenths over the Virgin cars, they were still around two seconds slower than the established teams, ensuring there will be plenty of work to do bin 2011. In Q2, both Williams' and Force India's were eliminated while once again Michael Schumacher endured a disappointing Saturday as he failed to get his Mercedes into final qualifying.
However, Q3 was all about Vettel and his astonishing lap time. It will take a monumental effort for him to be overhauled tomorrow. Further back, Q3 brought out some very impressive performances; Vitaly Petrov put his Renault in a superb 6th place indicating he has stepped up to the plate in Robert Kubica's absence while Sebastien Buemi's 10th place ensured Toro Rosso's first visit to Q3 since 2009. The race tomorrow promises to be a thriller and on the streets of Melbourne, the Australian GP should be as unpredictable as ever.
Australian GP grid positions
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1min 23.529secs
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:24.307
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:24.395
4 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:24.779
5 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:24.974
6 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 1:25.247
7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:25.421
8 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:25.599
9 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber 1:25.626
10 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:27.066
11 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:25.971
12 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:26.103
13 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber 1:26.108
14 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:26.739
15 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:26.768
16 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:31.407
17 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams 1:26.270
18 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault 1:27.239
19 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Team Lotus 1:29.254
20 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Team Lotus 1:29.342
21 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 1:29.858
22 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing 1:30.822
23 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Hispania 1:32.978 *
24 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Hispania 1:34.293 *
* outside the 107% qualifying time.
Josh.
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