Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel returned to the front with his first pole position of the season at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Vettel’s lap of one minute, 32.422 seconds earned the Red Bull Racing driver his thirty-first pole in Formula One. The German edged out championship leader Lewis Hamilton by a margin of under a tenth of a second.

Mark Webber lines up in third ahead of Jenson Button, while Chinese Grand Prix winner Nico Rosberg had to settle for fifth.

Despite setting the practice pace, Mercedes had a disappointing qualifying session. Rosberg elated to do a single Q3 run that was only good enough for fifth fastest. As for Michael Schumacher, the seven-time world champion was eliminated in Q1 with an issue with the DRS.

Daniel Ricciardo gave Toro Rosso huge encouragement with his career-best sixth on the grid, in front of Romain Grosjean’s Lotus and Sergio Perez’s Sauber.

As for Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard choosing not to do a Q3 flying lap in the Ferrari, saving a set of Pirellis for the race.

Paul di Resta was likewise and even though Force India missed out on Friday afternoon practice session, di Resta was able to deliver the result needed in qualifying.

The pair will share row five, with Alonso five positions ahead of his Scuderia team-mate Felipe Massa.

Schumacher’s exit in Q1 was the biggest shock in qualifying. It came down to an issue with the Mercedes adjustable rear wing and a supreme lap from Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen.

With track conditions rapidly improving, early Q1 times did not prove sufficient. Both Red Bulls were on the edge of elimination, as did Sergio Perez, but in the end it was Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne – for a third straight race – and Schumacher who ended up on the wrong side of the cut-off.

Vergne may face further trouble after the qualifying as television replays suggested he missed a call to the weighbridge in Q1.

Schumacher was not the only world champion making an early departure from qualifying, as Grosjean’s progress into Q3 came at the expense of Lotus team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who will start in P11.

Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India could not match their team-mates’ form and will line up in P12 and P13 respectively.

It was a tough session for Williams too, with Bruno Senna only P15 while a KERS issue preventing Pastor Maldonado – who was already facing a five-place gearbox change penalty – from running in Q2.

While at the back, Marussia was nearly three seconds off Kovalainen’s pace, as Charles Pic outqualified team-mate Timo Glock for the first time – the German ending up behind Pedro de la Rosa’s HRT as well in P23.

Qualifying times from Bahrain:

1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m32.422s
2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m32.520s
3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m32.637s
4.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m32.711s
5.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m32.821s
6.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m32.912s
7.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m33.008s
8.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m33.394s
9.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                No time
10.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   No time
11.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m33.789s
12.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m33.806s
13.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m33.807s
14.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m33.912s
15.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault       1m34.017s
16.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1m36.132s
17.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m34.865s
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m35.014s
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       1m35.823s
20.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      1m37.683s
21.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth           1m37.883s
22.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       No time*
23.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      1m37.905s
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           1m38.314s

*Five-place grid penalty for gearbox change

107 per cent time: 1m40.380s

After competing in 111 races, Nico Rosberg has finally claimed his maiden Formula One race victory with a commanding drive in a thrilling Chinese Grand Prix.

This result means Rosberg becomes the first new winner in the sport since Heikki Kovalainen won the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix, 64 races ago.

Rosberg also joins the elusive list of father and son succeeding in Formula One. Both Keke and Nico are the third combination of winners after Graham and Damon Hill, and Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve.

As for Mercedes, their last triumph was back in the 1955 Italian Grand Prix with Juan Manuel Fangio.

McLaren duo Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton completed the podium, ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

At a track where he had led only to fade in each of the last two years, Rosberg ensured he stayed at the head of an absorbing race in which variants of tyre strategies played out throughout the 56-lap race.

Not only did drivers vary between two and three pit-stops, but also there were huge differences in stint length.

Despite the Mercedes team’s tyre difficulties in the opening two races, this time the team handled the Pirelli issue perfectly – allowing Rosberg to deploy a textbook two-stop strategy and keep himself ahead of most of the action.

The German pulled away from his team-mate Michael Schumacher in the opening laps, soon establishing a four-second lead. Schumacher’s opportunity to feature in the lead battle then ended when he retired with an incorrectly fitted right-front wheel immediately after his first pit-stop.

Button was Rosberg’s main challenger thereafter. A great start immediately took Jenson to third, and he was catching Rosberg on a three-stop plan for a while, but victory was dashed following a slow final pit-stop with a left-rear wheel issue.

Kimi Raikkonen’s two-stopping Lotus held second position going into the closing stages, but trying to do half the Chinese Grand Prix on his third set of tyres proved too optimistic, and the Iceman tumbled from second to P14 in just a handful of laps.

Vettel, following a similar strategy, was first to pass Raikkonen, and looked like he might salvage second from his qualifying disaster.

The reigning world champion could not hold off the McLarens or team-mate Webber with their fresher tyres from a three-stop strategy, with Button getting through five laps from the end.

Hamilton and Webber doing likewise amid a thrilling tussle over the last two laps.

Webber took fourth despite his first pit-stop coming as early as lap six, and two trips off the track – one of which featured a wild flight over the Turn 13 kerbs.

While Raikkonen fell back, his Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean did a two-stop plan with a very long middle stint and was able to battle to sixth, ahead of the Williams duo of Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado.

As for Fernando Alonso, the Sepang winner was only ninth for Ferrari having lost a little ground running off-track trying to pass Maldonado.

Sauber was a factor in this pack but could not repeat its Malaysian Grand Prix heroics. Kamui Kobayashi fell back with a poor start and finished in tenth, just ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez, who led for a while on a two-stop strategy.

Thus, after the race of the season, Hamilton leads the world championship with 45 points to Button’s 43, with Fernando Alonso third on 37. In the constructors’ stakes, McLaren still lead with 88 points to Red Bull’s 64, Ferrari’s 37, Sauber’s 31, Mercedes’ 26 and Lotus’s 24.

The next race is in Bahrain and despite the political unrest; the sport’s governing body has safely ensured the event will take place.

Chinese Grand Prix race results, after 56 laps:

1.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   1h36:26.929
2.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +20.626
3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +26.012
4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +27.924
5.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +30.483
6.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +31.491
7.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +34.597
8.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +35.643
9.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +37.256
10.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +38.720
11.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +41.066
12.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +42.273
13.  Massa         Ferrari                    +42.779
14.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +50.573
15.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +51.213
16.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +51.756
17.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1:03.156
18.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
19.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
20.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
21.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +1 lap
22.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps
23.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +3 laps

Fastest lap: Kobayashi, 1:39.960

Not classified/retirement:

Schumacher    Mercedes                     16 laps

World Championship standings, round 3:

Drivers:
1.  Hamilton      45
2.  Button        43
3.  Alonso        37
4.  Webber        36
5.  Vettel        28
6.  Rosberg       25
7.  Perez         22
8.  Raikkonen     16
9.  Senna         14
10.  Kobayashi      9
11.  Grosjean       8
12.  Di Resta       7
13.  Vergne         4
14.  Maldonado      4
15.  Ricciardo      2
16.  Hulkenberg     2
17.  Schumacher     1

Constructors:
1.  McLaren-Mercedes           88
2.  Red Bull-Renault           64
3.  Ferrari                    37
4.  Sauber-Ferrari             31
5.  Mercedes                   26
6.  Lotus-Renault              24
7.  Williams-Renault           18
8.  Force India-Mercedes        9
9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          6

Next race: Bahrain Grand Prix, Sakhir. April 20-22.

Nico Rosberg achieved his maiden Formula One pole position in an exciting and dramatic qualifying session in Shanghai.

The German put Mercedes at the front of the grid for the first time since Juan Manuel Fangio led the field at Monza in 1955.

Rosberg was a full half a second quicker over second-fastest Lewis Hamilton. But due to the gearbox penalty applied to the McLaren driver, Michael Schumacher is promoted to P2 forming an all-Mercedes front row.

While Rosberg celebrated his first ever pole, it was a disastrous day for reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel. Not only beaten by his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber in qualifying for the third time this season, Vettel will start the Chinese Grand Prix down in eleventh.

Rosberg had led a Mercedes one-two in Q2, and then blitzed his rivals early in Q3 with an unbeatable time of one minute, 35.121 seconds.

So confident was Rosberg that the time would hold for pole, he got out of his car and walked off to the weighing area while the rest of the top ten tried in vain to improve their times.

Hamilton managed to get between the Silver Arrows on lap times, although on the starting grid he will line up in seventh.

His penalty means Kamui Kobayashi is promoted to an amazing third, as the Japanese driver emphasised Sauber’s progress by setting the fourth quickest time.

Thanks to the high level of competition this season, Vettel faced a difficult task for a fourth consecutive Shanghai pole and with the failure to make the top ten shootout for the first time since Brazil 2009 was a major shock.

The double world champion, running a different exhaust specification on the RB8 to Mark Webber, was only three tenths of a second slower than his pacesetting team-mate in Q2.

But that was the difference between first and eleventh in the extraordinarily close session. Vettel had been gradually edged down the top ten and ultimately pushed out by Romain Grosjean’s Lotus.

His Lotus team-mate Kimi Raikkonen will start fourth, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button and Mark Webber in the Red Bull.

Malaysia combatants Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso were together again as they led the way in Q1 after going for softs tyres, and qualified in close company once more in eighth and ninth.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was closer to his team-mate pace, but will start in P12.

The second half of the grid will line up in neat team formation. With the two Williams sharing row seven ahead of the Force Indias, and while Jean-Eric Vergne did not get beyond Q1, he will still start alongside Toro Rosso team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Meanwhile at the back, Caterham led Marussia and HRT, with all drivers comfortably within the 107 per cent qualifying margin.

Qualifying times from Shanghai:

1.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m35.121s
2.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m35.691s
3.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m35.784s
4.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m35.898s
5.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m36.191s
6.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m36.290s
7.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m35.626s*
8.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m36.524s
9.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m36.622s
10.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        No time
11.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m36.031s
12.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m36.255s
13.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m36.283s
14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m36.289s
15.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m36.317s
16.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m36.745s
17.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m36.956s
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m37.714s
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m38.463s
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m38.677s
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m39.282s
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m39.717s
23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m40.411s
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m41.000s

*Five-place grid penalty for gearbox change

107 per cent time: 1m42.931s

After a long red flag period and changeable weather conditions, Fernando Alonso took his twenty-eighth career Grand Prix victory in a thrilling race in Sepang.

The double world champion held off the remarkable Sergio Perez to take the chequered flag and with this win, he now leads the world championship despite a difficult start to the season.

But it could have been so different if Perez didn’t make that error in the late stages of the race – running wide in an attempt to catch Alonso.

The Mexican was a revelation in the Malaysian Grand Prix. Setting fastest laps in a bid to catch the leading Ferrari, but that mistake cost the Sauber driver a chance of victory. Despite this set back, Perez should be immensely proud of what he has achieved.

Perez became the first driver from his country to lead a race and finish on the podium since Pedro Rodriguez in 1971.

Lewis Hamilton completed the podium, with his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button outside the points after a disastrous race.

Sebastian Vettel also failed to score due to a clash in traffic, though his Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber claimed fourth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus and the Williams of Bruno Senna.

Most of the field used intermediates for the start, which took place on a track dry in some parts but extremely wet in others.

The McLarens held their grid formation into Turn 1, as Romain Grosjean and Michael Schumacher battled for third until making contact and both spinning as the Lotus slid into the Mercedes, allowing the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Vettel into third and fourth, ahead of Alonso.

Grosjean would put the Lotus into the gravel for good on lap three.

Already the rain was beginning to increase, and it was at that moment Sauber opted for the masterstroke of putting Perez straight onto extreme wet tyres – a choice nearly everyone would have to follow over the ensuing laps as the circuit became ever-more sodden.

By lap four, Perez was lapping three seconds quicker than the leaders, and that pace meant that by the time everyone had made the switch to wets, the Sauber was up into third position behind the McLarens. Webber, Alonso and Vettel were next up, the Ferrari having split the Red Bulls by taking wets a lap earlier than Vettel.

The storm then increased to the point that a red flag was inevitable, and the field would spend nearly an hour halted on the grid setting up shelter from the rain.

Particularly notable performances at this stage were Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne getting up to seventh by virtue of hanging on with intermediates in the deluge, and Narain Karthikeyan appearing in tenth for HRT having started on wets.

Race control mandated wet tyres for the eventual restart, though by the time four laps behind the safety car had been completed the track was right for intermediates, with Button pitting just as racing resumed.

That allowed him to jump ahead of team-mate Hamilton, who also lost out to Alonso in a slightly slow pitstop. But Button’s race then fell apart as he clipped Karthikeyan while coming back through traffic after his pitstop, forcing him to pit for a new front wing.

Perez stayed out a lap longer than Alonso and Hamilton, and rejoined ahead of them – although the Ferrari immediately overtook the Sauber.

Alonso then began edging away, establishing six-second cushion over Perez, as both dropped the rest of the field.

As the track dried heading into the final stages of the race, Perez charged up behind Alonso, whose tyres were fading faster. Before the Sauber could attack, Alonso came in for dry, slick tyres, and reopened a five-second lead by doing so a lap before his rival.

But on a dry track, the Sauber was much faster than the race leader and started taking a second or more per lap out of Alonso’s lead, closing onto the rear of the Ferrari with seven laps to go – amid radio messages from the team urging him not to jeopardise second place.

Then a mistake coming onto the back straight saw Perez run wide and lose five seconds. The Mexican immediately resumed his charge, but did not have enough laps to pull off a remarkable win.

Hamilton did not have the pace to catch the top two in wet or dry conditions and finished third. Vettel was on course for fourth until clipping Karthikeyan’s HRT in the closing stages – causing a left-rear puncture that dropped the world champion to P11 and handed fourth to Webber.

Raikkonen continued his strong race form on his Formula One return with fifth place for Lotus.

Senna produced an excellent charge to take a career-best finish of sixth for Williams, despite sliding into team-mate Pastor Maldonado on the first lap and breaking his front wing.

Both Force Indias scored, with Paul di Resta seventh and Nico Hulkenberg ninth, split by Vergne’s Toro Rosso.

As for Mercedes, their weekend fell apart in the race again, with Schumacher only able to get back up to tenth after the first-lap clash and an additional tyre stop leaving Nico Rosberg P14, behind the delayed Button – whose recovery drive was stymied by tyre difficulties that saw him make another additional stop.

Maldonado had been on course for the final point as he chased Vergne and Hulkenberg in a tight three-way battle, until an engine problem halted the Williams two laps from the flag.

While one Ferrari took victory ahead of a future protégé, Felipe Massa could only finish P15 after another poor performance.

So a brilliant result for Ferrari and Fernando Alonso. After a difficult start to the season with the F2012, this victory was the perfect way to answer the critics. The Spaniard now leads the world championship after two races.

And yet the star of the race was Sergio Perez. His performance in the Sauber was remarkable. To miss out on taking the overall win due to a driver error was unfortunate. Nevertheless, Perez’s has a bright future in the sport and we could see him in the red car soon.

Malaysian Grand Prix, race result after 56 laps:

1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    2h44:51.812
2.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +2.263
3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +14.591
4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +17.688
5.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +29.456
6.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +37.667
7.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +44.412
8.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +46.985
9.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +47.892
10.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +49.996
11.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +1:15.527
12.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1:16.828
13.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +1:18.593
14.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +1:19.719
15.  Massa         Ferrari                    +1:37.319
16.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
17.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
18.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
19.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +2 laps
20.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +2 laps
21.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps
22.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +2 laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:40.722

Not classified/retirements:

Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               47 laps
Grosjean      Lotus-Renault                4 laps

World Championship standings, round 2:                

Drivers:            
1.  Alonso        35
2.  Hamilton      30
3.  Button        25
4.  Webber        24
5.  Perez         22
6.  Vettel        18
7.  Raikkonen     16
8.  Senna          8
9.  Kobayashi      8
10.  Di Resta       7
11.  Vergne         4
12.  Hulkenberg     2
13.  Ricciardo      2
14.  Schumacher     1

Constructors:
1.  McLaren-Mercedes           55
2.  Red Bull-Renault           42
3.  Ferrari                    35
4.  Sauber-Ferrari             30
5.  Lotus-Renault              16
6.  Force India-Mercedes        9
7.  Williams-Renault            8
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          6
9.  Mercedes                    1

Next race: Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai. April 13-15.

For the second successive weekend, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button maintained McLaren’s excellent qualifying form this season with a front row lock-out at Sepang.

Michael Schumacher continues to impress with his best qualifying performance since making his Formula One comeback for Mercedes by taking third.

While defending world champion Sebastian Vettel elated to run the harder compound Pirelli and will start the Malaysian Grand Prix in fifth for Red Bull.

As was the case in Australia, Hamilton’s first flying lap in Q3 was enough to secure the top grid slot, as his one minute, 36.219 seconds proved unbeatable.

Button was second fastest after those runs, but was pushed back by Schumacher. Mercedes had left it late in Q2 and looked in danger of being eliminated before surging into the top ten, and then went for just one run in Q3.

That meant Schumacher was back in the pits by the time Button launched his retaliation, the McLaren edging the Mercedes off the front row by just 0.023 seconds. Schumacher beat team-mate Nico Rosberg by five places and a little under three tenths.

The Q3 battle was incredibly close, with just a small margin of four tenths covering pole to eighth position.

In fact, Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen set times that were identical to one-thousandths of a second – but the Australian claims the place ahead as he set the time first. Kimi’s grid penalty means he will start the race in tenth.

Red Bull was not a pole contender again, despite Mark Webber setting the quickest lap in Q1. He will start in fourth while team-mate Vettel gambled on the hard compound for his second Q3 run, meaning he will start the race on the more durable tyres.

After topping the time sheets in Q2, Kimi Raikkonen qualified his Lotus in a superb fifth but will drop down to tenth following his gearbox penalty. His team-mate Romain Grosjean was sixth quickest.

Against the team’s own expectations, Fernando Alonso got Ferrari into Q3 – although he could only manage to beat Sergio Perez’s Sauber to ninth.

Felipe Massa was closer to Alonso’s pace than he had been for most of the Melbourne weekend but he missed the Q2 cut and was P12.

Several of the underdog stars of Melbourne qualifying fell back into the midfield in Malaysia.

Pastor Maldonado briefly got into the top ten despite an early trip through the gravel in Q2, but he was pushed back to P11 as the Mercedes delivered their late laps. Maldonado will start two positions ahead of Williams team-mate Bruno Senna.

There were no Force Indias or Toro Rossos in Q3 compared to last weekend.

The closely-matched Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg claimed P14 and P16 for Force India, just 0.013 seconds apart and split by Daniel Ricciardo, whose Toro Rosso team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne locked-up in Q1, flat-spotted a tyre and consigned himself to P18.

Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber brought up the rear of the Q2 pack.

Both HRTs made the 107 per cent cut this time around, and will not even start last on the grid, as Heikki Kovalainen’s penalty for passing under the safety car in Australia will drop the Caterham from P19 to last.

So a fantastic result for McLaren and Lewis Hamilton. The MP4-27 certainly has the edge over their rivals and thanks to the Mercedes engine; the car is so fast down the Sepang straights.

Can Hamilton takes his first win of the 2012 season or will Button score his second successive triumph? What about Schumacher? The seven-time world champion has a great opportunity to go for his 92nd Grand Prix victory on Sunday.

Qualifying times from Sepang:

1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m36.219s
2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m36.368s
3.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m36.391s
4.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m36.461s
5.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m36.634s
6.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m36.658s
7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m36.664s
8.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m37.566s
9.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m37.698s
10.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m36.461s*
11.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m37.589s
12.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m37.731s
13.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m37.841s
14.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m37.877s
15.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m37.883s
16.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m37.890s
17.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m38.069s
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m39.077s
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m39.567s
20.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m40.903s
21.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m41.250s
22.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m42.914s
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m43.655s
24.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m39.306s**

107 per cent time: 1m43.974s

*Five-place grid penalty for changing gearbox
**Five-place grid penalty for passing under the safety car

 

Jenson Button opened the 2012 world championship with the perfect result by recording his thirteenth career victory with a brilliant drive in the Australian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver made a great start from the front row to lead into Turn 1 and from then, drove a strong controlled race to take his third Albert Park win.

Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel finished in second for Red Bull, ahead of pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton.

While Mark Webber recovered from a poor start (clashing with Nico Hulkenberg into the first corner) to take fourth for Red Bull with Fernando Alonso dragging his Ferrari from a lowly grid position to a respectable fifth.

Button claimed the lead at the start with a better getaway than his pole-sitting team-mate, and then quickly established a lead of three seconds, which stayed stable through the opening stint.

The two Mercedes occupied third and fourth initially, but Vettel overtook Nico Rosberg on the second lap with an amazing round-the-outside pass.

Michael Schumacher’s run in third lasted only until lap 10, when he retired with a gearbox problem.

That elevated Vettel into third, but the defending champion was 12 seconds down on the McLarens by then and could make little impression.

Third-place qualifier Romain Grosjean dropped to sixth off the line, and was another early retirement when he clashed with Pastor Maldonado on lap two. Maldonado would lose ground with a trip through the Turn 6 gravel three laps later, but rejoined in ninth.

The gap between the McLarens grew to ten seconds at the first stops when Hamilton emerged behind Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez, who were running extremely long first stints.

That allowed a train of cars to develop for second, as Vettel gained and brought Alonso – who made a great start then jumped Rosberg in the first pitstops – with him, and Rosberg, Webber and the recovering Maldonado closed in too.

Webber had initially fallen back with a poor start and a first corner clash with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, who had to retire.

The lead order remained unchanged until Vitaly Petrov’s Caterham brought out a safety car by stopping on the pits straight with a steering problem in the middle of the final pitstop sequence.

The McLarens had both just pitted, whereas Vettel had not, and the Red Bull was able to get in for its tyre change under the safety car and get back out between Button and Hamilton.

Vettel was still no threat to Button, though, as the 2009 world champion confidently pulled away from his successor at the restart and left the Red Bull to fend off Hamilton through the final stint.

Webber also benefited from pitting under the safety car to get in front of Alonso at the last pitstops.

The Ferrari could not keep up with the Red Bull thereafter, and as Webber chased Vettel and Hamilton home, Alonso had to focus on successfully defending fifth from Maldonado – who made the task easier when the Williams crashed heavily on the final lap.

Behind, a huge battle between the Saubers of one-stopper Perez and Kamui Kobayashi, Rosberg’s Mercedes – which fell back with tyre wear and early pitstops – and Raikkonen also ended in last-lap drama, as Kobayashi emerged with sixth ahead of Raikkonen and Perez, while Rosberg’s Mercedes jammed in second gear and tumbled down to P12.

The final-lap chaos ahead allowed Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo to pick up his first Formula One points at home with ninth place, despite having lost ground in a first-corner clash with Bruno Senna, which also sent Jean-Eric Vergne off track. Paul di Resta completed the top ten for Force India.

Felipe Massa briefly made it into the top ten, but struggled with poor pace and high tyre wear, making three pitstops and falling back to P13 before retiring with damage following a collision with Senna’s Williams.

So a great result for Jenson Button and McLaren. Not only does the MP4-27 look beautiful, the Mercedes-powered car is fast. Can Button keep this winning form in Malaysia? We will find out in the next seven days.

Australian Grand Prix, race results after 58 laps:

1.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           1h34:09.565
2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +2.100
3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +4.000
4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +4.500
5.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +21.500
6.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +36.700
7.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +38.000
8.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +39.400
9.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +39.500
10.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +39.700
11.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +39.800
12.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +57.600
13.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +1 lap
14.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
15.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +2 laps
16.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +4 laps

Fastest lap: Button, 1:29.187

Not classified/retirements:

Massa         Ferrari                      47 laps
Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault             42 laps
Petrov        Caterham-Renault             37 laps
Schumacher    Mercedes                     11 laps
Grosjean      Lotus-Renault                2 laps
Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes         1 lap
Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth                 1 lap
De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth                 1 lap

World Championship standings, round 1:

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

Constructors:
1.  McLaren-Mercedes           40
2.  Red Bull-Renault           30
3.  Sauber-Ferrari             12
4.  Ferrari                    10
5.  Lotus-Renault               6
6.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          2
7.  Force India-Mercedes        1

Next race: Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang. March 23-25.

Lewis Hamilton kicked off his 2012 season with a perfect result by achieving his twentieth career pole position for the Australian Grand Prix, ahead of McLaren team-mate Jenson Button and the impressive Romain Grosjean in the Lotus.

Hamilton’s single flying lap of one minute, 24.922 seconds was enough to edge him ahead of his rivals, with a margin of seven tenths of a second.

Romain Grosjean took a spectacular third for Lotus on his Formula One return. Such a remarkable performance from the GP2 champion when compared to his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who was knocked out in Q1.

Michael Schumacher achieved his best qualifying result for Mercedes in fourth.

As for the Red Bulls, home crowd favourite Mark Webber could only manage fifth out-qualifying defending world champion Sebastian Vettel.

This is quite a setback for the championship-winning team with only a row three start. For Vettel, to start in sixth is a disappointing result.

Further back, Ferrari’s fears of an awful start to the 2012 season came true as neither of its cars reached the top ten.

While Raikkonen’s Formula One comeback got off to a surprisingly bad start as he was eliminated in Q1. The Iceman will start in P18.

Hamilton looked assured of pole after his first Q3 run, and although his rivals closed in, none could match his lap time.

Instead they fought over second position, which changed hands in quick succession in the closing moments as Webber – who chose to do just a single Q3 run – Schumacher, Grosjean and finally Button taking turns to close in on Hamilton.

Vettel never looked like being a pole contender and his sixth place was his worst qualifying result since he took the same position at Monza back in 2010.

Mercedes had appeared like a pole challenger as it led the way in Q2, but Schumacher and team-mate Nico Rosberg had to be content with fourth and seventh respectively.

Neither Ferrari got beyond Q2. Fernando Alonso spun into the Turn 1 gravel, causing a brief red flag. Fifth at the time, the Spaniard could only furiously watch as others demoted him down to P12.

But that was still better than Felipe Massa could manage. The Brazilian was a second off his Scuderia team-mate in both Q1 and Q2, despite having more laps than the sidelined Alonso. Massa ended up P16.

Raikkonen’s disastrous first qualifying session back in the sport was the biggest story. The Finn made a mistake on his final Q1 run, backed off to go for another attempt, only to find that he ran out of time… Kimi will line up in P18 for Lotus.

At the tail end of the Q3 field, Pastor Maldonado gave Williams huge encouragement after its difficult 2011 season with eighth position, with Nico Hulkenberg claimed ninth for Force India in his first race back after a year as a reserve driver at the team.

Daniel Ricciardo made sure that both Formula One’s Australians will start from the top ten as he got his Toro Rosso into the pole shoot-out, although he did not complete a flying lap in Q3.

Jean-Eric Vergne only just missed joining his team-mate in Q3, lapping a tenth slower as he secured P11 for his maiden Grand Prix start.

Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi set a surprise fastest time in Q1, but could not repeat that performance and qualified only P13. Team-mate Sergio Perez was unable to set a time in Q2 and will take a five-place grid penalty for changing the gearbox.

Bruno Senna and Paul di Resta were outperformed by their Q3-bound team-mates and were only P14 and P15.

While at the back of the grid, Caterham was some way off Q2 pace but clearly ahead of Marussia. As for HRT, both cars failed to make the 107 per cent cut-off time, with Narain Karthikeyan also blocking Alonso during qualifying.

So a McLaren one-two in Melbourne. Not only is the MP4-27 beautiful, the Mercedes-powered car is fast. Can Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button score that first win on Sunday? It looks likely judging by the speed advantage over Red Bull.

Qualifying positions from Albert Park:

1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m24.922s
2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m25.074s
3.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m25.302s
4.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m25.336s
5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m25.651s
6.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m25.668s
7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m25.686s
8.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m25.908s
9.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m26.451s
10.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    No time
11.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m26.429s
12.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m26.494s
13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m26.590s
14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault      1m26.663s
15.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m27.086s
16.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m27.497s
17.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m27.758s
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m28.679s
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m29.018s
20.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m30.923s
21.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m31.670s
22.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        No time*
23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m33.495s
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m33.643s

107 per cent time: 1m32.214s

*Five-place grid penalty for changing gearbox

The 2012 season is almost upon us, with new drivers and new rules joining an expanded 20-race calendar, this year’s world championship is likely to be the most thrilling and aggressively fierce in the history of Formula One racing.

There will be six champions on the grid this season, with the youngest double world champion Sebastian Vettel aiming to win his third consecutive title for Red Bull Racing.

Only two drivers in the past sixty-three years in the pinnacle of motor racing have achieved the title hat-trick. The legendary Juan Manuel Fangio was the first back in 1956, while Michael Schumacher achieved his third straight championship with Ferrari in 2002. Can Sebastian join this exclusive club? He is the favourite to claim the big prize but this year’s competition is closer than ever.

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