
Sebastian Vettel ahead of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso
Red Bull took the front row of the grid for the Australian Grand Prix tomorrow, with Sebastian Vettel leading local boy Mark Webber.
Vettel’s Q3 time of 1.23.919 was the fastest of the weekend so far, and was a tenth of a second ahead of Webber. Fernando Alonso’s best lap time was 1.24.111, putting him in third place. The biggest susprise of qualifying was Lewis Hamilton failing to get into Q3, the first of the top 4 teams to do so this season.
Q1
Red Bull were the only team who managed to get through to Q2 using only the hard tyres, which are believed to be half a second slower than the softer tyre. Hamilton, Button and Alonso, as well as the Red Bulls, were all able to get through with only 1 run. As expected, the new 3 teams filled up the back 3 rows of the grid, but HRT have now improved well from Bahrain. The two Lotus drivers finished ahead of Virgin and HRT. However, Jarno Tulli’s performance was hindered by a broken seat.
Sebastien Buemi would have been knocked out with the new teams, but for a last-gasp effort to put Vitaly Petrovin his place. The Russian might have got through to Q2, but a mistake at Turns 11 and 12 slowed him down considerably.
Drivers knocked out in Q1:
18)Sebatien Buemi
19)Heikki Kovalainen
20)Jarno Trulli
21)Timo Glock
22)Lucas di Grassi
23)Bruno Senna
24)Karun Chandhok
Q2
The biggest surprise of this session was that Lewis Hamilton failed to get through to Q3. He did two runs on the soft tyre, and was only a small fraction of a second behind Robert Kubica, but ended up 11th.
While Nico Hulkenberg only qualified 15th, Rubens Barrichello was 7 tenths faster, and got through to Q3. The Saubers struggled again, with Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi getting 14th and 16th respectively.Toro Rosso did well, with Sebastien Buemi getting 12th, and Jaime Alguersuari ending up 17th.
Drivers knocked out in Q2:
11)Lewis Hamilton
12)Sebastien Buemi
13)Vitantonio Liuzzi
14)Pedro de la Rosa
15)Nico Hulkenberg
16)Kamui Kobayashi
17)Jaime Alguersuari
Q3
Webber was initially fastest, getting ahead of Alonso. But, Vettel’s fastest lap of the weekend threw him off the top spot, despite a mistake in the final sector.All of the top drivers’ final runs were fruitless, with little improvement from their efforts.
At the end of the session, both Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher tried a run on the hard tyres, but neither improved on their time. It is clear that they were trying to improve their chances in the race, by going further in the first stint.
Jenson Button was fourth, followed by Felipe Massa, Rosberg, Schumacher, Barrichello, Kubica and Sutil.
Pictures will be added soon.
Full results from qualifying:
1 |
Sebastian Vettel |
Red Bull-Renault |
1.24.774 |
1.24.096 |
1.23.919 |
2 |
Mark Webber |
Red Bull-Renault |
1.25.286 |
1.24.276 |
1.24.035 |
3 |
Fernando Alonso |
Ferrari |
1.25.082 |
1.24.335 |
1.24.111 |
4 |
Jenson Button |
McLaren-Mercedes |
1.24.897 |
1.24.531 |
1.24.675 |
5 |
Felipe Massa |
Ferrari |
1.25.548 |
1.25.010 |
1.24.837 |
6 |
Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes |
1.24.788 |
1.24.788 |
1.24.884 |
7 |
Michael Schumacher |
Mercedes |
1.25.351 |
1.24.871 |
1.24.927 |
8 |
Rubens Barrichello |
Williams-Cosworth |
1.25.702 |
1.25.085 |
1.25.217 |
9 |
Robert Kubica |
Renault |
1.25.588 |
1.25.122 |
1.25.372 |
10 |
Adrian Sutil |
Force India-Mercedes |
1.25.504 |
1.25.046 |
1.26.036 |
11 |
Lewis Hamilton |
McLaren-Mercedes |
1.25.046 |
1.25.184 |
|
12 |
Sebastien Buemi |
Toro Rosso-Ferrari |
1.26.061 |
1.25.638 |
|
13 |
Vitantonio Liuzzi |
Force India-Mercedes |
1.26.170 |
1.25.743 |
|
14 |
Pedro de la Rosa |
Sauber-Ferrari |
1.26.089 |
1.25.747 |
|
15 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
Williams-Cosworth |
1.25.866 |
1.25.748 |
|
16 |
Kamui Kobayashi |
Sauber-Ferrari |
1.26.251 |
1.25.777 |
|
17 |
Jaime Alguersuari |
Toro Rosso-Ferrari |
1.26.095 |
1.26.089 |
|
18 |
Vitaly Petrov |
Renault |
1.26.471 |
|
|
19 |
Heikki Kovalainen |
Lotus-Cosworth |
1.28.797 |
|
|
20 |
Jarno Trulli |
Lotus-Cosworth |
1.29.111 |
|
|
21 |
Timo Glock |
Virgin-Cosworth |
1.29.592 |
|
|
22 |
Lucas di Grassi |
Virgin-Cosworth |
1.30.185 |
|
|
23 |
Bruno Senna |
HRT-Cosworth |
1.30.526 |
|
|
24 |
Karun Chandhok |
HRT-Cosworth |
1.30.613 |
|
|
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Here’s hoping that Mark can finally win in front of his home crowd.
Go Mark!