Vettel leads Red Bull 1-2 in Melbourne quals

Sebastian Vettel takes another pole

In a qualifying session that was delayed from yesterday due to heavy rain, Sebastian Vettel claimed pole position for today's Australian Grand Prix with a time of 1m27.407s in changing conditions! His Red Bull teammate Mark Webber slots into second with a time of 1m27.827s. Lewis Hamilton will start third with his final lap of the session – a 1m28.087s

Felipe Massa will start 4th out-qualifying Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso by 0.003s, with Nico Rosberg sixth and Kimi Raikkonen seventh.

More to follow…..

QUOTES

Car 1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL, Position: POLE POSITION!
“Obviously I was very happy with the result, but with the adjusted schedule we can’t be too euphoric right now – in a few hours the race is coming up, so it’s head down again to get on with that. Obviously it’s a very good result for myself and the team and with Mark in second we have a front row – it’s a surprise after not knowing where we were in winter testing."

Car 2 MARK WEBBER, Position: 2nd
“I think with such intense conditions like yesterday and today, it’s always easy to make a meal of it, but we didn’t. It was slippery yesterday and we came back again today for a very short explosive session; it’s all over in a flash. We needed to get things right, I would have liked two laps but we finished up the grid at the right end. The weather can change very quickly here, so it’s always hard to make a call."

Lewis Hamilton, 3rd
The conditions were very tricky out there today and the team did a great job to get us out at the right times. I haven't had the best of weekends so far so I'm happy to have finally put a good lap together today. I've done a lap more than Sebastian on my tires so I might struggle to go as long on the first stint but I'll give it everything I can in the race this afternoon. The team have worked incredibly hard, both here and at the factories in Brackley and Brixworth, and they deserve a good result. We've got a good baseline to work from with this car but only time will tell where we can go from here.

Nico Rosberg, 6th
That's a good team result this morning if you compare to where we were at the end of last year, so we have made some good progress over the winter, which is down to the fantastic work of the team back at the factories. However, we can also see that there is still a gap to the quickest team. I was very quick in the wet but later it didn't work out as well on the slicks. The race will be a different story and I expect to have good race pace which will help me gain positions this afternoon.

Results

Pos No Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:44.657 1:36.745 1:27.407
2 2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:44.472 1:36.524 1:27.827
3 10 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:45.456 1:36.625 1:28.087
4 4 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:44.635 1:36.666 1:28.490
5 3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:43.850 1:36.691 1:28.493
6 9 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:43.380 1:36.194 1:28.523
7 7 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:45.545 1:37.517 1:28.738
8 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:44.284 1:37.641 1:29.013
9 14 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:45.601 1:36.901 1:29.305
10 5 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:44.688 1:36.644 1:30.357
11 11 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1:45.930 1:38.067
12 15 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:47.330 1:38.134
13 18 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Ferrari 1:44.871 1:38.778
14 19 Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari 1:46.450 1:39.042
15 6 Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1:44.300 1:39.900
16 17 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1:47.328 1:40.290
17 16 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:47.614
18 12 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1:47.776
19 22 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1:48.147
20 23 Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1:48.909
21 21 Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1:49.519
22 20 Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1:50.626