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Nico Rosberg achieved his second career pole position and the Mercedes F1 team’s first back-to-back since 1955 following an exciting qualifying session at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The Silver Arrows had not looked like an outright front row contender during practice but when Rosberg recorded a lap of one minute, 32.4 seconds at the start of Q3, his rivals were unable to match it.

Sebastian Vettel came close for Red Bull Racing with a time of one minute, 32.584 seconds. He will start ahead of last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix winner Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari.

Rosberg then made his pole position absolutely certain, improving with a time of one minute, 32.330 seconds to grab the top spot by over 0.2 seconds.

His Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton was 0.4 seconds slower in fourth position. However, he will lose five places on the grid for having a gearbox change prior to qualifying.

A left-rear tyre failure damaged the rear suspension, which also included the gearbox. So the team was forced to replace it, hence the grid penalty.

Fifth position will also change post-session. Mark Webber took the place for Red Bull, but faces a three-place penalty himself after last weekend’s collision with Jean-Eric Vergne in China.

Ferrari put Felipe Massa on hard tyres for Q3 and he took sixth position, followed by the Force India pair of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil. The latter only just made it into Q3 with a late charge.

After setting the pace in Friday practice, Kimi Raikkonen was only ninth in his Lotus.

McLaren was ecstatic to see Jenson Button reach Q3 against expectations with a last-gasp lap. The 2009 world champion chose not to do a flying lap in the top ten shootout.

The late Q2 improvements pushed Romain Grosjean’s Lotus down to P11. The Frenchman was back in the pits at the end of the session with his first lap not been suitable enough to make it through.

Both Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado set identical times in the Williams during Q1. However, since Bottas recorded the one minute, 34.425 seconds lap first, meaning he made it to Q2 that became P15, his team-mate was left out with P17.

Esteban Gutierrez’s troubles continued as he only managed P18 in qualifying, which will become last when his five-place penalty for crashing into Adrian Sutil in China is applied.

There was a change in form at the back. Driving the upgraded Caterham, Charles Pic got his team ahead of Marussia for the first time this season, as he beat Jules Bianchi by a full 0.9 seconds.

Giedo van der Garde, in the older-spec Caterham, also outqualified a Marussia, pushing Max Chilton down to P22.

So a great pole position by Nico Rosberg. The first for Mercedes since Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio at the British and Italian Grands Prix in 1955. This is also the Brackley-based team first back-to back, when it was Brawn GP, since Jenson Button in 2009 Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix.

Grid positions for the Bahrain Grand Prix:

1.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes              1m32.330s
2.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault      1m32.584s
3.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari               1m32.667s
4.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari               1m33.207s
5.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes  1m33.235s
6.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m33.246s
7.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault      1m33.078s*
8.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault         1m33.327s
9.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes              1m32.762s*
10.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes     No time
11.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault         1m33.762s
12.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes      1m33.914s
13.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m33.974s
14.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari        1m33.976s
15.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault      1m34.105s
16.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m34.284s
17.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault      1m34.425s
18.  Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault      1m35.283s
19.  Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth     1m36.178s
20.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault      1m36.304s
21.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth     1m36.476s
22.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari        1m34.730s*

*Grid penalty

107 per cent time: 1m39.379s

Fernando Alonso scored his 31st victory in Formula 1 with a gritty drive in the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver made some great passes on his rivals and thanks to the tactics on starting on the soft compound tyre, he made this plan worked out perfectly to win in Shanghai.

Kimi Raikkonen recovered from a poor getaway at the start to finish in second position for Lotus while pole sitter Lewis Hamilton had to settle for third.

Both drivers used the same tyre strategy as the race winner to fill the podium, while championship leader Sebastian Vettel was giving chase throughout the race following his low grid position.

Vettel’s tactics on running the medium set could only give him fourth position and the Red Bull driver was right behind the Mercedes in a thrilling finish.

The race unfolded as two parallel contests between those who started on softs, briefly burst clear and then pitted early and dropped into traffic, and those who started on mediums, emerged up front, but would face soft tyre degradation later.

Alonso quickly thrust himself to the front of the first group. A slow start from Raikkonen meant the Ferraris were into second and third by Turn 1, and both Alonso and Felipe Massa overtook Hamilton on lap five as the Mercedes’ soft tyres faded quicker.

Massa stayed out one lap longer than most on soft and subsequently faded away from the lead battle, while Alonso’s speed at hacking through traffic on alternative strategies once he was on mediums gave him an advantage over everyone else on the same strategy.

Vettel left his softs until the final five laps.

But by then, Alonso’s strategy was the correct one. The Ferrari’s shorter stints meant Alonso caught Vettel on track on lap 42 on fresher tyres at a time when both had one more pitstop to go.

Alonso swiftly passed the Red Bull and cruised away, knowing Vettel would still have to take on softs.

While the Ferrari was out of reach, Vettel still had a chance to attack Raikkonen’s Lotus and Hamilton’s Mercedes, which had been battling all race.

The defending champion caught his two rivals at a rate of three seconds per lap after his late pitstop and started the final lap with Hamilton in sight.

The Mercedes hung on by just 0.2 seconds, with Raikkonen staying just far enough ahead to claim second. The Lotus was sporting a dramatic tear in its nose section after an early brush with the defensive Sergio Perez’s McLaren.

Jenson Button pulled off a two-stop strategy in the other McLaren, allowing him to lead for a while and finish in fifth place ahead of Massa.

Daniel Ricciardo converted his impressive qualifying result into seventh for Toro Rosso, despite an early front wing change.

Paul di Resta and Romain Grosjean were eighth and ninth for Force India and Lotus respectively.

Nico Hulkenberg played a major role in the early stages. Running the same strategy as Vettel, he got ahead of the Red Bull early on and led as the strategies unfolded.

A slow pitstop meant he lost out to Vettel, and Sauber’s strategy of a very short middle stint on softs did not work out, leaving him tenth.

Mark Webber’s troubled weekend got even worse in the race. Clearing the soft tyres on the opening lap and instantly taking mediums gave him a shot at getting up with the leaders, but he smashed his front wing in a tangle with Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso then retired when his right rear wheel fell off after a subsequent pitstop for repairs.

Nico Rosberg was troubled by an apparent suspension problem from the outset and retired his Mercedes soon after his second pitstop.

Esteban Gutierrez crashed out after ploughing into the back of Adrian Sutil. The Force India driver had earlier clashed with his team-mate di Resta.

The stewards were investigating several drivers for possible use of DRS under yellow flags – notably Vettel, Webber, Raikkonen, Bottas, Ricciardo and Chilton.

And yet in the end, no action was taken. However, both Mark Webber and Esteban Gutierrez received grid drops in the next race at Bahrain for crashing into cars.

So a fantastic race for Ferrari and Fernando Alonso. He matches Nigel Mansell’s record of 31 wins in the sport. It was his 200th race start too.

After three rounds, Vettel still leads the title chase with 52 points, from Raikkonen on 49, Alonso on 43, Hamilton on 40, Massa on 30 and Webber on 26. In the constructors’ stakes, Red Bull have 78, Ferrari 73, Lotus 60, Mercedes 52, and McLaren and Force India 14.

Bahrain plays hosts to round four of an exciting Formula 1 season next weekend. With three different winners in the first three races, will we see a new winner? Just like the tyre strategy and action on track, it’s going to be unpredictable.

Race results from Shanghai International Circuit:

1.  Alonso         Ferrari                    1h36:26.945
2.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault              +10.168s
3.  Hamilton       Mercedes                   +12.322s
4.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault           +12.525s
5.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes           +35.285s
6.  Massa          Ferrari                    +40.827s
7.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +42.691s
8.  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes       +51.084s
9.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault              +53.423s
10.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari             +56.598s
11.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes           +1m03.860s
12.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1m12.604s
13.  Bottas      Williams-Renault           +1m33.861s
14.  Maldonado         Williams-Renault           +1m35.453s
15.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
16.  Pic            Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
17.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
18.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault           +1 lap

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1m36.808s

Not classified/retirements:
Rosberg        Mercedes                     22 laps
Webber         Red Bull-Renault             16 laps
Sutil          Force India-Mercedes         6 laps
Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari               5 laps

World Championship standings, round 3:                

Drivers:             
1.  Vettel         52
2.  Raikkonen      49
3.  Alonso         43
4.  Hamilton       40
5.  Massa          30
6.  Webber         26
7.  Button         12
8.  Rosberg        12
9.  Grosjean       11
10.  Di Resta        8
11.  Ricciardo       6
12.  Sutil           6
13.  Hulkenberg      5
14.  Perez           2
15.  Vergne          1

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault           78
2.  Ferrari                    73
3.  Lotus-Renault              60
4.  Mercedes                   52
5.  Force India-Mercedes       14
6.  McLaren-Mercedes           14
7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          7
8.  Sauber-Ferrari              5

Next race: Bahrain Grand Prix, Bahrain International Circuit. April 19-21.

Lewis Hamilton achieved his 27th career pole position in Formula 1 and his first for the Mercedes AMG team.

However, the proceedings to the qualifying session at the Shanghai International Circuit was dominated by tyre strategy, with a lack of track action from the drivers.

Conserving tyres is now the important issue this year with Pirelli pushing the limits of tyre wear in order to provide more entertainment  – pitstops and mixed strategies – and it was not a surprise to see so few qualifying runs as the drivers saved the tyres for the race instead.

Hamilton set his impressive lap time of one minute, 34.484 seconds on the soft compound while Kimi Raikkonen qualified his Lotus in second place, 0.277 seconds off the flying Silver Arrows.

Fernando Alonso will start third for Ferrari.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel will start in ninth position after making the decision not to set a time in Q3. Despite the low grid order, the Red Bull driver will have the advantage in the first stint of the race thanks to running the medium tyre.

His Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber had a disastrous session, as a fuel pressure problem stranded the Australian in Q2. He will now start the Chinese Grand Prix right at the back of the grid.

With the soft tyres only good for one flying lap and expected to quickly fade away in the main race, qualifying was all about rubber conservation.

Q3 duly became a one-lap shootout in the final minute as all ten contenders poured onto the track at once.

Raikkonen was first to take provisional pole with a time of one minute, 34.761 seconds.

Several likely challengers were unable to match that benchmark, but Hamilton came through on a one minute, 34.484 seconds to give Mercedes pole at Shanghai for a second consecutive year.

Alonso ended his run of being outqualified by Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa as he took third, two positions ahead of the Brazilian.

Nico Rosberg split them in the other Mercedes.

Romain Grosjean was sixth for Lotus, followed by Daniel Ricciardo.

The Australian was one of the stars of qualifying as he got Toro Rosso into Q3 for the first time this season, beating team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne by 0.9 seconds in Q2.

Jenson Button joined Vettel in opting for medium and did a slow lap for eighth, while Vettel and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg chose not to do Q3 flying laps at all.

Webber ended qualifying in P14 after a fuel pressure problem forced him to park his car on the circuit in Q2.He will now start Sunday’s race in P22 as the team was unable to provide the mandatory fuel sample for the FIA.

Both Force Indias narrowly missed out on the top ten, with Paul di Resta just 0.029s off in P11. Team-mate Adrian Sutil was behind Sergio Perez’s McLaren in P13.

The tyre issue even neutered Q1, which did not feature any track action until halfway through.

Toro Rosso attempted to get through on mediums, but had to make a late switch to softs as both drivers were at risk of missing the cut.

Vergne and Ricciardo’s improvements meant Valtteri Bottas’s Williams and Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber were the two midfield cars that got knocked out.

Jules Bianchi had been ahead of the Toro Rossos before they moved to softs, but had to settle for his usual P19 for Marussia, still comfortably faster than his back-of-the-grid rivals.

So a fantastic achievement by Lewis Hamilton. His first pole for Mercedes. Can Lewis win his first race for the team and repeat their performance just like year with Nico Rosberg? We shall find out on race day in China.

Qualifying times from the Shanghai International Circuit:

1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes             1m34.484s
2. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m34.761s
3. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m34.788s
4. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m34.861s
5. Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m34.933s
6. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m35.364s
7. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m35.998s
8. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     2m05.673s
9. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     no time
10. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari       no time
11. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m36.287s
12. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes     1m36.314s
13. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m36.405s
14. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m37.139s
15. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m37.199s
16. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault     1m37.769s
17. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari       1m37.990s
18. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth    1m38.780s
19. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth    1m39.537s
20. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault     1m39.614s
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault     1m39.660s
22. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m36.679s*

*Excluded from qualifying after running out of fuel

107 per cent time: 1m42.489s

Following the fallout between the Red Bull drivers over the team order controversy that dominated last month’s Malaysian Grand Prix, the defending world champion has said he would ignore the instructions from the team to hold station again.

Sebastian Vettel attracted widespread criticisms from the media and fans, while team-mate Mark Webber was left feeling outrage when the German overtook the Australian to win at Sepang.

The pair had been ordered to maintain track position with Webber ahead after the final pitstops, but Vettel mounted an aggressive attack and snatched the race victory.

He later apologised to the team and to Webber, but when faced towards the media again three weeks after the event, Vettel was asked if he would repeat his actions.

The triple world champion said: “I’m not sure I can give a proper answer because in the moment it might be different but I would probably do the same.”

Vettel argued that he had misunderstood the team’s message, yet admitted that even if he had comprehended, his actions would likely not have changed.

“Had I understood the message and had I thought about it, reflected on it, thought what the team wanted to do, to leave Mark in first place and me finishing second… I think I would have thought about it and I would probably have done the same thing.

“He didn’t deserve it.

“There is quite a conflict, because on the one hand I am the kind of guy who respects team decisions and the other hand, probably Mark is not the one who deserved it at the time.”

Sebastian added his move was “indirectly” a form of payback for what he said was a lack of past support from Webber.

“I never had support from his side. I have a lot of support from the team, and the team has supported both of us the same way.

“But in terms of the relationship to Mark, I respect him a lot as a racing driver, but I think there was more than one occasion in the past where he could have helped the team and he didn’t.”

Despite not regretting his actions, Vettel said he stood by his decision to apologise to Red Bull.

“I was racing, and as a racing driver I was solely focused on winning the race and I got a call on the radio, which I heard, but I didn’t understand at the time,” he said.

“I should have understood, that is why I apologised to the team – because in my action I put myself above the team. Whether you believe me or not is up to you.”

But he shrugged off suggestions that he should have received a formal punishment from Red Bull.

“Maybe it is a little bit of a dreamland that you all live in, but what do you expect to happen?” said Vettel. “Make a suggestion!”

Reading into this, Sebastian Vettel has revealed his darker, more ruthless side to his character. After charming his way with countless press interviews and winning worldwide fans thanks to his supreme driving talent and world title victories, his action at Sepang shows how competitive and determined he wants to be in order to become successful.

In many ways, he is just like his childhood idol, the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher. Both pushed the absolute limit in terms of achieving success – by whatever means necessary – and yet the public perception will change from being a nice and popular driver to a damn right ruthless one.

It’s going to be fascinating whether team boss Christian Horner can maintain control over his two ultra competitive race drivers, as it seems the pair no longer trust each other… What is interesting is that Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz is not a fan of team orders meaning the pair will need to settle the score by racing one another. The ideal situation for fans and media alike.

Sebastian Vettel achieved his 27th Grand Prix victory in Formula 1 by defeating Mark Webber at Sepang. And yet this race will be remembered for the ferocious Red Bull intra-team battle to secure the result.

The pair were wheel-to-wheel repeatedly in the closing laps before Vettel took the number one place.

Just behind them, a similar scenario was playing out between the Mercedes team-mates. The radio messages from team boss Ross Brawn made it clear that Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg should hold track position.

Unlike his fellow countryman, Rosberg respected the team orders and obeyed the instructions not to challenge his team-mate.

As for the triple world champion, he made the pass against the team’s wishes and later apologised for the incident.

Taking part in his 200th Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso was a contender for the win but crashed out on the second lap after sustaining wing damage from nudging Vettel exiting Turn 1.

Track conditions had been wet at that start following a heavy pre-race shower.

Alonso immediately passed Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa off the line, resisted Webber’s outside-line attempt and attacked Vettel for the lead, but slid lightly into the Red Bull at Turn 2.

That dislodged the Ferrari’s front wing, a situation that worsened as the lap went on – though that did not stop Alonso from fending off Webber’s repeated challenges.

The Ferrari stayed out on track, seemingly hoping to coincide the wing change with a switch to the slick tyres, but as Webber passed Alonso on the pits straight, the Spaniard’s wing collapsed and sent him skating into the gravel and out of the race.

Vettel and Webber then ran first and second, swapping positions at the pit-stops as Vettel’s early change to slicks proved slightly premature.

Webber came under increasing pressure from Vettel in the middle of the race, while the Mercedes began catching them both.

This prompted Vettel to urge the team to get Webber out of his way, but the Australian managed to rebuild a lead and Vettel found himself dropping behind the earlier-pitting Hamilton at the third pit-stops.

Hamilton lost pace in the next stint, allowing Vettel to reclaim second into the first corner.

The world champion then played the early stop tactic at the fourth and final pit visit, which brought him right back onto Webber’s tail when the Australian changed tyres.

They grappled wheel to wheel through the first five corners for two consecutive laps, prompting frantic radio calls from a concerned Red Bull pit wall, before Vettel got decisively in front and went on to clinch another win.

The Mercedes had fallen away by that stage and were involved in their own intra-team controversy. After Hamilton and Rosberg swapped places repeatedly in the DRS zones for several laps, they were ordered to hold station and save fuel and tyres, to Rosberg’s clear displeasure.

Ferrari had to settle for fifth with Felipe Massa, who recovered to that position after losing ground in the early stages.

That place would have gone to Jenson Button had the McLaren not lost two minutes in the pits after pulling away with a loose right-front wheel and having to stop in the pitlane and wait for his mechanics to retrieve the car.

That was one of a wild array of pit incidents, which also included Hamilton mistakenly pulling into former team McLaren’s pit box, both Force Indias having to retire with wheelnut issues, and Charles Pic and Jean-Eric Vergne colliding amid pitstops.

Lotus claimed sixth and seventh with Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen, the latter having an uneventful race that included several trips off the circuit and a bitter battle with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, who took eighth.

Sergio Perez was ninth for McLaren, while Vergne held off Valtteri Bottas to give Toro Rosso the final championship point.

The controversial result catapults the repentant Vettel into the lead in the drivers’ world championship with 40 points from Raikkonen on 31, Webber on 26, Hamilton on 25 and Massa on 22, while Red Bull have a comfortable lead in the constructors’ stakes with 66 points from Ferrari and Lotus on 40, and Mercedes on 37.

So after two dramatic races in the space of seven days, Formula 1 takes a three-week break before China. Hopefully the time will heal the relationship between the Red Bull drivers… if ever.

Malaysian Grand Prix, race results after 56 laps:

1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault           1:38:56.681
2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault           +4.298
3.  Hamilton       Mercedes                   +12.1
4.  Rosberg        Mercedes                   +12.640
5.  Massa          Ferrari                    +25.6
6.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault              +35.5
7.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault              +48.4
8.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari             +53.0
9.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes           +72.3
10.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +87.1
11.  Bottas         Williams-Renault           +88.6
12.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
13.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
14.  Pic            Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
15.  Van der Garde  Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
16.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth          +2 laps
17.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes           +3 laps
18.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +5 laps

Fastest lap: Perez, 1m39.199

Not classified/retirements:

Maldonado      Williams-Renault          45 laps    KERS
Sutil          Force India-Mercedes       27 laps  Wheel nut
Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes   22 laps    Wheel nut
Alonso         Ferrari                   1 lap    Accident

World Championship standings, round 2:                

Drivers:    
1.  Vettel         40
2.  Raikkonen      31
3.  Webber         26
4.  Hamilton       25
5.  Massa          22
6.  Alonso         18
7.  Rosberg        12
8.  Grosjean        9
9.  Sutil           6
10.  Di Resta        4
11.  Hulkenberg      4
12.  Button          2
13.  Perez           2
14.  Vergne          1

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault           66
2.  Lotus-Renault              40
3.  Ferrari                    40
4.  Mercedes                   37
5.  Force India-Mercedes       10
6.  McLaren-Mercedes            4
7.  Sauber-Ferrari              4
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          1

Next race: Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai. April 12-14.

Sebastian Vettel achieved his 38th career pole position in Formula 1, with the Red Bull team gambling on the car set-up by preparing for the wet conditions.

It did rain at the Sepang International Circuit and after struggling for outright speed in terms of lap times in the dry running of Q1 and Q2, the wet conditions helped improved performance in Q3.

The end result was Vettel securing yet another pole with a time of one minute, 49.674 seconds. The triple world champion made great use of a fresh set of intermediates to set the lap.

Behind the Red Bull are the Scuderia pair of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. The Brazilian yet again out-qualified his Spanish team-mate, his fourth consecutive race, but the margin compared to the young German was still 0.9 seconds…

Lewis Hamilton held provisional pole for Mercedes going into the last minute, before being shuffled back to fourth position by Vettel and the Ferraris.

Mark Webber was another contender for pole but ended up lower down, in his case fifth.

Q2 pacesetter Nico Rosberg completed the top six, with championship leader Kimi Raikkonen in seventh. The Iceman won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in this position.

But hours after qualifying, the race stewards have penalised the Lotus driver for impeding Nico Rosberg at the end of Q3.

Raikkonen’s penalty relegates him to tenth on the grid promoting Jenson Button, Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez.

The rain had started in Q2, catching out those who had not set a timed lap.

The Ferraris just made it through in time, but Romain Grosjean’s early time was pushed back to P11, leaving the Lotus driver frustrated.

Paul di Resta spun helplessly to P15, behind Nico Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Gutierrez. Williams driver Pastor Maldonado was unable to set a lap time at all, caught out by the rain.

Williams had already lost Valtteri Bottas, unable to get out of Q1, along with Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne.

Both drivers were only a few tenths clear of the astonishing Jules Bianchi’s Marussia. The French rookie beat the rest of the backmarkers by 0.9 seconds and was 1.2 seconds quicker than his team-mate Max Chilton.

Sunday’s race at Sepang is going to be fascinating. With Vettel on pole running a wet set-up ahead of the red cars of Massa and Alonso. Can the defending champion score his first win of the season? Let’s hope it rains in Sepang judging by the RB9’s lack of performance in the dry conditions.

Qualifying times from Sepang:

1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m49.674s
2.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m50.587s
3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m50.727s
4.  Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes             1m51.699s
5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m52.244s
6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m52.519s
7.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m53.175s
8.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m53.439s
9.  Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes     1m54.136s
10.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m52.970s*
11.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m37.636s
12.  Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari       1m38.125s
13.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m38.822s
14.  Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari       1m39.221s
15.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m44.509s
16.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     no time
17.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m38.157s
18.  Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault     1m38.207s
19.  Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth    1m38.434s
20.  Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault     1m39.314s
21.  Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth    1m39.672s
22.  Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault     1m39.932s

107 per cent time: 1m43.585s

*Three-place grid penalty for impending another driver during qualifying

Kimi Raikkonen took his twentieth career victory in Formula 1 by playing the two-stop strategy to perfection to beat Fernando Alonso to the win in Melbourne.

It was a thrilling race and after all the predictions of a Red Bull domination, Sebastian Vettel could only manage third.

The defending champion’s team-mate Mark Webber was only sixth after yet another poor start. The home favourite finished behind Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.

As for Adrian Sutil, this was a great comeback race for the Force India driver. He actually led the race for long periods and yet he finished down in seventh position after struggling with a lack of grip with his wore tyres at the end.

The superiority Red Bull had displayed in all the weekend’s dry running so far was never evident in the race.

Webber immediately plunged outside the top five with a poor start, and Vettel was unable to get away from the fast-starting Massa and Alonso, who both passed Hamilton on the opening lap.

Raikkonen overtook the Mercedes soon afterwards, and then closed in on Vettel, Massa and Alonso to make a four-car lead train.

All the frontrunners pitted very early to get rid of their fragile super-soft tyres.

The order among that quartet remained the same into the second stint, but they had to fight their way through those running longer, including Sutil – who had started on the medium compound and found himself in the lead by lap 15.

Vettel, the Ferraris and Raikkonen were soon on the Force India’s slipstream. They could not pass though, and Sutil was able to make his first pitstop at the same time as Vettel, Massa and Alonso made their second, bringing the Force India onto the same sequence as the victory contenders.

Alonso pitted a lap before Sutil and Vettel and was able to leapfrog both.

Sutil stayed ahead of Vettel in the pits but was overtaken into Turn 3 a lap later. Vettel could not put any pressure on Alonso however, even as the Ferrari had to battle through drivers on other strategies – including Hamilton, with whom the Spaniard had a spectacular dice before getting clear.

By this time, Raikkonen’s strategy had come into play.

He stayed out until lap 34, a couple of laps longer than the other leaders, making it clear that Lotus was going for a two-stop to their three.

That left The Iceman with a comfortable lead over Alonso and Vettel when they made their third stops, and although the Ferrari initially began carving the lost ground to the Lotus, once Alonso had used his new-tyre grip, the gap stabilised.

Raikkonen was therefore able to claim victory by 12 seconds, as Alonso pulled 10 seconds clear of Vettel.

Massa faded in fourth after a very strong first half of the race.

Hamilton was next up, having had to abandon his intended two-stop strategy and pit for a third time. Webber made a quiet recovery to sixth, just behind Hamilton, whose team-mate Nico Rosberg retired with electrical problems.

Sutil stayed with the leaders until he finally had to take on super-softs with 12 laps to the flag. They did not last as he had hoped, and Sutil had to be content with seventh, just ahead of team-mate Paul di Resta.

Jenson Button finished ninth for McLaren, while Romain Grosjean completed the scorers, holding off Sergio Perez and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Nico Hulkenberg failed to take the start due to a pre-race fuel system problem on his Sauber. Pastor Maldonado spun off at Turn 1 before half-distance, and Daniel Ricciardo retired a sick-sounding Toro Rosso.

Jules Bianchi dominated the backmarker pack in P15 for Marussia.

So a great start to the new Formula 1 season with seven different leaders, battles amongst the field and unpredictability regarding the tyres. Roll on for the next Grand Prix in Sepang for another thrilling race.

Australian Grand Prix, race results after 58 laps:

1.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault              1h30:03.225
2.  Alonso         Ferrari                    +12.451
3.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault           +22.346
4.  Massa          Ferrari                    +33.577
5.  Hamilton       Mercedes                   +45.561
6.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault           +46.800
7.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes       +1:05.068
8.  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes       +1:08.449
9.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes           +1:21.630
10.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault              +1:22.759
11.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes           +1:23.367
12.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1:23.857
13.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
14.  Bottas         Williams-Renault           +1 lap
15.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
16.  Pic            Caterham-Renault           +2 laps
17.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth          +2 laps
18.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault           +2 laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:29.274

Not classified/retirements:

Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari           40 laps
Rosberg        Mercedes                     26 laps
Maldonado      Williams-Renault             25 laps
Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari               1 lap

World Championship standings, round 1:

Drivers:
1.  Raikkonen      25
2.  Alonso         18
3.  Vettel         15
4.  Massa          12
5.  Hamilton       10
6.  Webber          8
7.  Sutil           6
8.  Di Resta        4
9.  Button          2
10.  Grosjean        1

Constructors:
1.  Ferrari                    30
2.  Lotus-Renault              26
3.  Red Bull-Renault           23
4.  Mercedes                   10
5.  Force India-Mercedes       10
6.  McLaren-Mercedes            2

Next race: Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang. March 22-24.

After an 19 hour wait for the remaining qualifying sessions to run due to the heavy rain, it was the usual suspects of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber leading the field with a front row lock at Albert Park.

Sebastian Vettel made the most of a drying track to beat his Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber to take his 37th career pole position.

Damp conditions for the delayed remainder of qualifying raised hopes of a mixed-up grid, but in the end the pole shootout took place on slicks on a nearly-dry circuit, and it was the champion team that prevailed.

Vettel put himself a second and a half ahead of the field with his one minute, 27.407 seconds lap around the street circuit in Melbourne.

Webber looked poised to beat it until a mistake at the penultimate corner left him 0.420 seconds adrift. Vettel was improving further on his next lap before pitting when it became clear he was unbeatable.

Lewis Hamilton kick-started Mercedes GP’s season with third on the grid, 0.6 seconds off Vettel’s pace.

That was three places higher than team-mate Nico Rosberg, despite the German having been the class of the field when the track was wet. He comfortably topped Q2, having also gone fastest in Saturday’s Q1.

The Ferraris split the Mercedes, Felipe Massa outqualifying team-mate Fernando Alonso by 0.003 seconds to grab fourth position.

Row four will be filled by the Lotus duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. The Iceman starts ahead of his team-mate.

Paul di Resta got as high as second for Force India early in Q3 when intermediates were still the best choice. But on slicks he was pushed back to ninth, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button, the first driver to come out on dry tyres in the pole segment.

Several drivers had tried slicks in the final minutes of Q2, but this move proved premature.

While Button immediately returned to intermediates, his team-mate Sergio Perez persisted with slicks and found himself P15 on his McLaren debut.

Having looked a likely top-five man on intermediates, the slick move left Jean-Eric Vergne only P13, albeit ahead of inter-shod Toro Rosso team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Valtteri Bottas discovered slicks made no difference to Williams’s plight in P16, while Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber and Adrian Sutil’s Force India had the right tyres but were still squeezed back to row six.

So after a lengthy delay, we have a grid for the race and that takes place on the same day too!

Qualifying times at Albert Park:

1.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault       1m27.407s
2.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault       1m27.827s
3.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes               1m28.087s
4.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari                1m28.490s
5.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari                1m28.493s
6.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes               1m28.523s
7.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault          1m28.738s
8.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus Renault          1m29.013s
9.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes   1m29.305s
10.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes       1m30.357s
11. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari         1m38.067s
12. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m38.134s
13. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m38.778s
14. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m39.042s
15. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes       1m39.900s
16. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault       1m40.290s
17. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m37.593s
17. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m47.614s
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari         1m47.776s
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth      1m48.147s
20. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth      1m48.909s
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault       1m49.519s
22. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault       1m50.626s

107 per cent time: 1m50.616s

Qualifying for the season-opener Australian Grand Prix will be postponed until 11.00 am local time on Sunday morning due to heavy rain showers in Melbourne.

A delayed Q1 managed to take place after thirty minutes, but the start of Q2 was repeatedly put back due to the weather conditions.

The decision to postpone the rest of the session was finally taken nearly two hours after qualifying had begun.

The situation was complicated by further showers being forecast, so that even if the track improved, the likelihood was that the rain would immediately return.

Fading light added a further pressure to fit in Q2 and Q3.

Before the postponement was announced the FIA race director Charlie Whiting said: “After Q1 there was a lot of debris to pick up off the track plus the fact it had rained a little heavier. So we want to try to clear as much water off the track as possible. So we think a twenty minute delay is what we need.”

“The guys are out there working really hard to clear the water off the track. We do have the prospect of another quite heavy shower between now and half past six so I’m not sure that we’ll be able to start at half past six but we’ll do the best we can.”

As for the track action, Nico Rosberg went quickest in Q1. The Mercedes team timed the moment right to get both cars out at the start of the session.

This meant Rosberg spent a long while on top, although he had to fight to get the position back again after everyone switched to intermediates with five minutes to go.

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton spun at Turn 2, sustaining minor rear wing damage as he nudged the barriers. Briefly stranded on the sodden grass, he eventually managed to reverse back onto the track.

That was one of many incidents during the running that did take place.

Felipe Massa and both Caterhams had to limp back to the pits minus front wings after spinning into the barriers.

Esteban Gutierrez had a similar incident but ended up stranded on track in a damaged Sauber. That left him P18 on the grid, just behind a frustrated Pastor Maldonado.

Jules Bianchi led the rest of the rear pack in his Marussia, with the crashing Caterhams at the very back.

Provisional times from the end of Q3:

1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m43.380s
2. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m43.850s
3. Romain Grosjean       Lotus Renault           1m44.284s
4. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes        1m44.300s
5. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m44.472s
6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m44.635s
7. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m44.657s
8. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m44.688s
9. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m44.871s
10. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                1m45.456s
11. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault           1m45.545s
12. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m45.601s
13. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari          1m45.930s
14. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m46.450s
15. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault        1m47.328s
16. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1m47.330s
17. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        1m47.614s
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari          1m47.776s
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth       1m48.147s
20. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth       1m48.909s
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault        1m49.519s
22. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault        1m50.626s

107 per cent time: 1m45.301s

*Q2 and Q3 will take place on March 17th, just a few hours before the race at Albert Park.

The 2013 season is almost upon us. With new driver line-ups and tweaks to the regulations, this season’s world championship is likely to be the most competitive and aggressively fierce in the history of Formula 1 racing.

After becoming the sport’s youngest triple champion in a dramatic finale in Sao Paulo last year, Sebastian Vettel remains the favourite to win his fourth consecutive title for Red Bull Racing.

He joins an elusive hall of fame featuring the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher in achieving the title hat trick. Can Sebastian go for four straight wins? It seems possible but the level of competition is even closer than ever.

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