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 | – | – |