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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Spanish national team HRT have unveiled its new racer for the upcoming Formula One season with the F112.

The F112 completed its first laps at the Circuit de Catalunya today (March 5th), ahead of its Grand Prix debut in Australia in less than a fortnight’s time.

HRT took advantage of the filming day regulations in order to shakedown its new car after having been unable to get the car ready in time for the final pre-season test last week.

Narain Karthikeyan had the honour in driving the F112 on its maiden outing late in the afternoon at the track, after a frantic effort by the team to get the car ready in time.

Karthikeyan’s team-mate Pedro de la Rosa was also at the track following the proceedings.

The F112 will be powered by Cosworth engines for the third year in succession.

HRT’s car was unveiled on the same day as rivals Marussia, although the Anglo-Russian team is yet to pass all the mandatory crash tests set out by the FIA.

The Marussia was in action at the Silverstone circuit.

With both teams missing out on pre-season testing, it will be a race against time to become competitive in the opening few races of the new season.

Marussia has unveiled its new Cosworth-powered racer during a promotional event at Silverstone.

The Anglo-Russian team is running the MR01 for the first time at the venue of the British Grand Prix after the car had failed the mandatory crash tests outlined by the FIA and was therefore unable to join its rivals in the final pre-season test at Barcelona.

“We are very pleased to be running the new MR01 for the first time this morning (March 5th),” said team principal John Booth. “It has been a long and frustrating wait for everyone in the team but we can now get back on track – literally – and start working towards the first race of the season in Australia next weekend.

“Today is the first of two promotional events, so while the drivers will be able to get a feel for the car, they won’t be able to draw any real conclusions until we start running in anger in Melbourne. Nevertheless, this is an important day for us and we’ll enjoy every minute on track with the new car.”

The team said the MR01 is the result of a ground-up re-evaluation of the way it designs its racing cars after having used only CFD technology for its previous challengers.

The design team for the MR01 was led by Marussia’s technical consultant Pat Symonds. Marussia said the technical partnership agreed with McLaren Applied Technologies last year has been a big influential in the design process.

Timo Glock and Charles Pic will form Marussia’s driver line-up this season but both will face a steep learning curve in the opening few races due to the late showing of the MR01.

But at least the car looks elegant and has gone against the steeped nose compared to its rivals. Let see if the new car is competitive.

Former Williams driver Rubens Barrichello will start a new chapter in the IndyCar Series after signing a race deal with KV Racing.

The most experienced driver in Formula One history will contest the full season, including ovals, racing for the team co-owned by 1996 CART champion Jimmy Vasser.

His team-mates in the three-car outfit will be Tony Kanaan and EJ Viso.

“I am thrilled, it is something very new to me,” Barrichello said. “I need to thank everyone involved, especially Tony [Kanaan] because he has been involved for a long time.

“I will start as a rookie, but I think I will get better as the year progresses. My main thing is to be an addition to the team.

“They have been doing very well and Tony brought them to a different level last year, so I hope with my contribution we can build on this and take the team to another level. I am extremely happy and have a big smile on my face.”

KV also confirmed that Kanaan, who joined from Andretti Autosport ahead of the 2011 season, will remain with the team for the next two years.

“I am very excited to be returning to KV Racing Technology not only with a two year deal but also to have Rubens as my team-mate,” Kanaan said.

“We have always dreamed about racing together but never imagined it would actually happen and certainly not in the near future or in Indycars.”

Team co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven added: “I was at Sebring when Rubens first got into an Indycar. The smile when he got out of the car was a great moment and lasted for three days.

“Teamed with his ‘brother’ Tony Kanaan this is going to be an exciting season for the drivers, the team and the fans.”

Barrichello, who holds the record for most F1 starts with 322, will make his IndyCar debut as a rookie on March 25th in the season-opening race on the St Petersburg street circuit in Florida. The fourth race of the season will be his home event at another street track in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

His first oval race will be the Indianapolis 500 on May 27th. Former Formula One driver Jean Alesi has said he will compete in this year’s race as a one-off.

Barrichello will race the Dallara DW12 IndyCar, which is being introduced this year.

Video of Rubens Barrichello testing for KV Racing:

The new Mercedes W03 was officially unveiled to the world’s press just prior to the start of the second week of official Formula One testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.

As seen in the spy shots earlier last week, the W03 features the stepped nose, similar to that of several other Formula One cars.

The new car has already been shaken down at Silverstone last week, and conducted a private test at Catalunya on Sunday – which the team were permitted to undertake because it had only been present for three of the four days of running at Jerez earlier this month.

Mercedes chose to stick with its 2011 car for Jerez in order to gain valuable data on this season’s Pirelli tyres, and was quickest on two of the days it was present – though it was running to full 2011 specification, including the no-longer-permitted exhaust-blown diffuser.

Norbert Haug, Mercedes motorsport chief, has commented that the W03 would not feature any radical innovations – contrary to speculation that the team had waited until the second test to reveal the car because it featured technical breakthroughs it did not want rivals to copy.

The most obvious outward change is the move to a stepped nose, in common with the majority of rival teams.

Having been unable to beat rivals Red Bull Racing, McLaren and Ferrari to race wins in its first two years, Mercedes GP is hoping to get among the top three on a more regular basis this season.

Last year it revamped its technical team with the addition of former Renault engineer Bob Bell, ex-Ferrari design chief Aldo Costa, and Geoff Willis, formerly of Williams, BAR and Red Bull Racing.

Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher continue in an unchanged driver line-up at Mercedes. With Schumacher coming into the final season of what was initially planned as a three-year comeback deal, speculation about whether the seven-time world champion will stay on into 2013 and beyond is likely to be one of the biggest stories around Mercedes this season.

The Williams-Renault FW34 has been revealed to the world’s press just a few hours before the start of the opening pre-season testing in Jerez.

After a very poor 2011 season, in which the Grove-based team scored just five points and finished ninth in the constructors’ standings, Williams are hoping for a changes in fortunes this year.

The FW34 is the first Williams to be produced since the major change of technical line-up at the team, which saw erstwhile technical director Sam Michael head for McLaren and co-founder Patrick Head step away from the Formula One side of the operation. Mark Gillan now leads the technical side of the operation.

The FW34 also sees the reunion of the multiple championship winning Williams-Renault partnership, as the Grove-based squad switches from its previous Cosworth V8s to the engine that powered Red Bull Racing to the last two titles.

On the driver side, Bruno Senna has replaced Rubens Barrichello, while Pastor Maldonado remains for a second season. Test driver Valtteri Bottas gets an enhanced role that will include some Friday practice running.

Team principal Frank Williams said: “One could say that looking at the Williams F1 Team today we are off to a truly fresh start. We have a new car, new driver line up, new engine and new senior personnel.

“We also have a number of new partners who have joined the team in the past few months. I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome them formally and sincerely wish that they have an enjoyable and, most importantly, a valuable experience with us. The team has had a good winter at the factory and we feel ready and strong for the fight.”

This is the car that all the Formula One teams must beat following the unveiling of the new RB8 from defending world champions Red Bull Racing.

The Milton Keynes-based squad hopes the Adrian Newey-designed machine will continue their ultra successful title winning run in 2012 with the Renault-powered RB8.

Having taken Sebastian Vettel to the last two drivers’ titles alongside its 2010 and 2011 constructors’ crowns, Red Bull Racing’s latest design is the most eagerly awaited of the new season contenders.

Adrian Newey, the man generally regarded as the key to Red Bull’s recent domination, is again responsible for leading the RB8 design.

The car appears outwardly similar to last year’s all-conquering RB7, which won 12 out of 19 races, but features a revised nose layout and a different exhaust to accommodate this season’s rule changes.

Attention has been focused on the stepped nose design on RB8 and close inspection reveals a possible f-duct system could be in place… Does Newey have an aero secret up his sleeve with the now dubbed ‘Bull-duct‘?

The line-up of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber remain unchanged for the fourth consecutive season. However, ex-Toro Rosso racer Sebastien Buemi is now Red Bull Racing’s reserve.

Video of the Red Bull Racing RB8 launch: