Red Bull Racing maintain their dominance in qualifying this season with Mark Webber leading Sebastian Vettel to yet another front row at the Circuit de Catalunya.

The aerodynamic updates to the RB6 has made it ever quicker compared to the rivals and Webber’s pole lap at one minute, 19.995 seconds around the 2.875-mile track was impressive. The Australian hopes he can turn this result into race victory on Sunday unlike in Sepang.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton will start in third place but the 2008 world champion was 0.8 seconds adrift of Webber’s pole lap. Home crowd favourite Fernando Alonso, racing in the F-duct F60, lines up fourth for Ferrari while championship leader McLaren’s Jenson Button completed the top five.

And for the first-time ever, Michael Schumacher has outqualified his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg and will start the Spanish Grand Prix in sixth. The seven-time world champion feels more comfortable in the new longer wheelbase car, which also features a unique airbox intake. These updates has certainly improved his performance behind the wheel and to qualify in sixth with a margin of two-tenths of a second over Rosberg, it seems the old Michael Schumacher form is back in Formula One.

Renault’s Robert Kubica splits the Silver Arrows pair with seventh while Felipe Massa was only ninth for the Scuderia. Kamui Kobayashi completed the top ten as Sauber put in a stronger all-round performance when compared to the four flyway races earlier this season. Team-mate Pedro de la Rosa will be starting his home race in P12.

The Force India of Adrian Sutil lines up in P11, six places ahead of team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi.

As for Rubens Barrichello, who decided against running the Williams aero updates after trying it in free practice, was the high-profile casualty in Q1. The Brazilian complained about traffic and the lack of significant performance with the new upgrades to the FW32. He will start the race down in a frustrating P18.

Behind the Brazilian, Jarno Trulli led the battle of the new Formula One teams as the Lotus upgrades enabled the outfit to comfortably defeat Virgin Racing, while Karun Chandhok was the quicker of the HRT drivers on the back row of the grid.

Can anyone stop the flying Red Bulls on Sunday? The pace of the RB6 this season has been highly impressive with a lock-out on pole position after five races. Yes, the reliability is still a major issue plus the weather element playing its part to level out the field, but if the 66-laps plays out according without any incidents (including rain), then expect to see a straightforward victory for the Milton Keynes-based team on race day.

Qualifying times from the Circuit de Catalunya:

1.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:19.995
2.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:20.101
3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:20.829
4.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:20.937
5.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:20.991
6.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:21.294
7.  Kubica         Renault                1:21.353
8.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:21.408
9.  Massa          Ferrari                1:21.585
10. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:21.984
11. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:21.985
12. de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:22.026
13. Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:22.131
14. Petrov         Renault                1:22.139
15. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:22.191
16. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:22.207
17. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:22.854
18. Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:23.125
19. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:24.674
20. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:24.748
21. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:25.475
22. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:25.556
23. Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth           1:26.750
24. Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:27.122

Jenson Button took his second victory of the season in a dramatic and rain-affected Chinese Grand Prix.

The reigning world champion once again made the right call on tyres and in this instance, Button staying out on slicks in the rain while the others pitted for intermediates and showed his class again from the front.

Even when a safety car period eradicated his lead, Button’s tyre gamble paid off and he remained calm in the tricky conditions to take the chequered flag in Shanghai. Jenson now leads the world championship standings’ with 60 points.

McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished in second giving the team its first one-two result since Monza 2007, while Nico Rosberg continues to impress with another podium result for Mercedes GP.

After jumping the start and serving a drive-through penalty, plus making five pitstops in switching tyres, Fernando Alonso finished in fourth for Ferrari ahead of Robert Kubica’s Renault and Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull.

It was a disappointing race for Vettel as taking pole position doesn’t guarantee a victory so far this season. The German had a tense battle with rival Lewis Hamilton that even took place in the pits, with the pair racing wheel-to-wheel in the pitlane in an incident that will be investigated later by the race stewards.

Renault’s Vitaly Petrov did a solid job to finish in seventh, just managing to fend off the faster Red Bull of Mark Webber, while Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher complete the top ten for Ferrari and Mercedes.

The expected rain shower made its presence at the Shanghai International Circuit and once again the weather played havoc with Formula One.

The drama started early when Vitantonio Liuzzi lost control of his Force India under braking, spun and collected Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso and the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi.

Adrian Sutil, Jaime Alguersuari and Rubens Barrichello were also involved and headed for repairs in the pits, while Nico Hulkenberg did well to pick his way through unscathed.

But the safety car was still required, prompting the Red Bulls, the Ferraris, Hamilton and Michael Schumacher to gamble on changing to intermediate tyres.

Initially, it looked like the right call as Fernando Alonso charged past cars still on slicks. But Nico Rosberg and Button, up front having stayed out on the dry Bridgestone tyre, were lapping faster just one lap later as the intermediates burnt out quickly with the track not quite wet enough for them.

Within a couple of laps, all the drivers who made the initial switch to intermediates dived back to the pits for slicks, leaving Rosberg, Button, Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov well ahead of the rest.

The pitstops included Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel racing each other into the pitlane and leaving side-by-side too, an incident that will be investigated later. This incident might cost Hamilton the second position and if McLaren do receive a penalty it would be likely to take the form of a 25-second penalty that would drop him to fifth behind Robert Kubica. Or Lewis may get a grid penalty for the next race at Catalunya.

No sooner had the likes of Hamilton and Vettel fought their way back up the race order the heavens opened again, this time at a heavier rate. Leader Rosberg was caught out and a brief off-track excursion allowed Button to take the lead, and soon after everyone was in the pits to get intermediates back on.

The rain gifted Button, Rosberg and the Renaults a free pitstop, so the leaders 50-second advantage remained. But the safety car was back out after Alguersuari clipped the back of an HRT car and left front wing debris scattered on the track.

Button bunched the pack right up for the restart and, with the new rule about overtaking from the pitlane line, rather than the start/finish line, Vettel tried to take advantage to pass Hamilton into the last corner. But it backfired for his Red Bull team as he only succeeded in forcing Hamilton wide and shoving Webber off the track on the outside!

Hamilton once again had to fight his way back to the front and his progress included an entertaining battle with Schumacher. The seven-time world champion defended with great composure despite struggling for traction in his Silver Arrows. But eventually Hamilton made it by with an opportunistic dive between Turns 8 and 9.

Lewis then caught and passed Rosberg for second, just before the field descended on the pitlane once again for a final fresh set of intermediate tyres.

The race eventually settled down for the last 20 laps, as Button kept Hamilton at a safe distance. There was just a brief scare for the race leader as four laps from home Jenson overshot the final hairpin, but his McLaren team-mate was also struggling to keep his car on the road with fast-balding intermediates.

Rosberg was unable to mount a challenge for victory as he fended off Fernando Alonso for third in the closing stages of the Grand Prix. The Spaniard recovered well despite five pitstops, including a drive-through for jumping the start.

Kubica continued Renault’s good form, taking advantage on his early decision to stay on slicks to hold onto fifth, with Vettel taking a disappointing sixth for Red Bull.

It was another day of missed opportunities for Mark Webber. He was unable to make a rapid progress through the race compared to the likes of Hamilton or Vettel, and struggling with wore-out tyres at the end, the Australian lost out his seventh place finish to Petrov two laps from the chequered flag.

Heikki Kovalainen became the first driver for a new team to beat a driver from the established teams with P14. It helped that the Lotus driver made only two pitstops while Hülkenberg came in six times.

Behind them were the two Hispanias of Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok, the latter suffering a spin in the wet conditions.

So, a frantic race in China that resulted in a McLaren one-two thanks to the wet weather. Button now leads the drivers’ championship with 60 points, followed by Rosberg on 50, Alonso and Hamilton on 49, Vettel on 46, Massa on 41 and Kubica on 40. While the McLaren-Mercedes team head the constructors’ championship with 109 points to Ferrari’s 90, Red Bull’s 73, Mercedes GP’s 60 and Renault’s 46.

Race results from Shanghai, 56 laps:

1.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           1h44:42.163
2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +1.530
3.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +9.484
4.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +11.869
5.  Kubica        Renault                    +22.213
6.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +33.310
7.  Petrov        Renault                    +47.600
8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +52.172
9.  Massa         Ferrari                    +57.796
10. Schumacher    Mercedes                   +1:01.749
11. Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +1:02.874
12. Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +1:03.665
13. Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1:11.416
14. Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +1 lap
15. Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
16. Senna         HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps
17. Chandhok      HRT-Cosworth               +4 laps

Fastest lap: Hamilton, 1:42.061

Not classified/retirements:

Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth               27 laps
Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth              9 laps
De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari               8 laps
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari           1 lap
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               1 lap
Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes         1 lap
Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              1 lap

World Championship standings, round 4:

Drivers:
1.  Button        60
2.  Rosberg       50
3.  Alonso        49
4.  Hamilton      49
5.  Vettel        45
6.  Massa         41
7.  Kubica        40
8.  Webber        28
9.  Sutil         10
10. Schumacher    10
11. Liuzzi         8
12. Petrov         6
13. Barrichello    5
14. Alguersuari    2
15. Hulkenberg     1

Constructors:
1. McLaren-Mercedes          109
2. Ferrari                    90
3. Red Bull-Renault           73
4. Mercedes                   60
5. Renault                    46
6. Force India-Mercedes       18
7. Williams-Cosworth           6
8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari          2

NEXT RACE: Spanish Grand Prix, Barcelona. May 7-9.

Sebastian Vettel continued Red Bull Racing’s qualifying domination with another fantastic pole position at the Shanghai International Circuit, his third pole in four races.

The young German leads an all-Red Bull front row with Mark Webber only 0.248 seconds slower. The margin between the pair was too close to call in the first two sectors and yet it was Vettel who gained the upper hand in the last few corners to claim pole.

Fernando Alonso took third for Ferrari – four positions ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa – but it was a bitter pill to swallow for Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren. After setting the quickest time in Q1 and Q2, he was unable to challenge the Red Bulls for the top spot and will start the Chinese Grand Prix in sixth, behind Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg and his team-mate Jenson Button.

Michael Schumacher lines up in ninth in the Silver Arrows, between Robert Kubica’s Renault and the Force India of Adrian Sutil.

Rubens Barrichello almost got the Williams into the top ten, only for Sutil to bump the Brazilian down to P11 in the final seconds in Q2. Despite this Barrichello was within 0.033 seconds of beating his old Ferrari colleague Schumacher to the final Q3 slot. Williams team-mate Nico Hulkenberg lines up P16, in between the Sauber pair of Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa respectively.

Following his impressive race performance in Malaysia, Jaime Alguersuari out-qualified Toro Rosso team-mate Sebastien Buemi as the Spaniard equalled his career-best Formula One start in P12.

After crashing in the final practice session after losing control exiting the last corner, Vitaly Petrov was able to recover in the repaired Renault to take P14.

As for Tonio Liuzzi, the Force India driver blamed the traffic in costing him the chance in going through to Q2 and with a time margin of 0.111 seconds, he was right to complain! Liuzzi will start the race down in P18.

Lotus looked set to win the battle of the so called ‘division two of Formula One’ between the new teams until Timo Glock’s last qualifying run put Virgin Racing at the head of the tail-end pack by 0.117 seconds over Jarno Trulli’s Lotus. Heikki Kovalainen escaped a spectacular spin under braking for Turn 6 and will start in P21 in the second Lotus. As for Hispania, Bruno Senna edged out team-mate Karun Chandhok but the latter will receive a five-place penalty for non-regulation gearbox work on his car on Friday.

So, a great result for Red Bull Racing with a perfect 100 per cent pole record in 2010. Can Vettel score another Far East victory following his Malaysian Grand Prix success? Or will Webber readdress that first corner mistake in Sepang by going for the first win of the season? What about the forecast rain heading to Shanghai? Will that play a major affect on the race on Sunday? Let’s wait and see.

Qualifying times from Shanghai:
1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault      1:34.558
2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1:34.806
3.  Alonso         Ferrari               1:34.913
4.  Rosberg        Mercedes              1:34.923
5.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1:34.979
6.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes      1:35.034
7.  Massa          Ferrari               1:35.180
8.  Kubica         Renault               1:35.364
9.  Schumacher     Mercedes              1:35.646
10. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1:35.963
11. Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth     1:35.748
12. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:36.047
13. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:36.149
14. Petrov         Renault               1:36.311
15. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari        1:36.422
16. Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1:36.647
17. de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari        1:37.020
18. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes  1:37.161
19. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1:39.278
20. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth        1:39.399
21. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth        1:39.520
22. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth       1:39.783
23. Senna          HRT-Cosworth          1:40.469
24. Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth          1:40.578

Sebastien Vettel won his first race of the 2010 season with a dominant performance for Red Bull Racing. Team-mate Mark Webber finished in second despite starting from pole position while Nico Rosberg rewarded the Mercedes GP team with its first podium in third. A great result for the Silver Arrows in only its third race in Formula One.

That first corner move on his Red Bull team-mate was crucial as Vettel made a perfect start from third on the grid. He simply took the opportunity on the first lap as Webber left the space leading into Turn 1. In that moment, the Australian handed the Malaysian Grand Prix to his German rival and Vettel never looked back. Finally a win for Sebastian and his Luscious Liz!

Robert Kubica continued Renault’s strong form with fourth while the impressive Adrian Sutil taking fifth for Force India. The McLaren of Lewis Hamilton – who drove an aggressive race following a mistake in qualifying – was sixth, ahead of Felipe Massa’s Ferrari and Australian Grand Prix winner Jenson Button in the other McLaren.

As for Fernando Alonso, who was driving well despite a downshift problem with the F10’s gearbox, the Spaniard suffered a late failure which promoted fellow countryman Jaime Alguersuari into ninth – taking his first points of the season for Toro Rosso, a great reward thanks to his bold overtaking moves on Nico Hulkenberg and Vitaly Petrov. The former taking the final points position for Williams.

Sebastien Buemi was P11 for Toro Rosso with Rubens Barrichello’s Williams in P12. Even though Fernando Alonso was forced to retire with an engine failure, the double world champion was classified in P13 but that late retirement means Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa now leads the drivers’ championship by two points.

Virgin Racing’s Lucas di Grassi was the best of Formula One’s so called ‘division two’ with P14 – nursing its inadequate fuel level to the flag – finishing ahead of the Hispanias pair of Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna respectively.

Jarno Trulli was the last remaining classified runner with P17 though he suffered hydraulic problems at the end – with similar issues forcing Lotus team-mate Heikki Kovalainen to lose several laps in the pits.

Also hitting trouble were Petrov, Force India’s Tonio Liuzzi, Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes, Timo Glock’s Virgin Racing and both Saubers – with Pedro de la Rosa not even making the start following engine problems on his way from the garage to the grid.

So that much-talked about rain never arrived, as the race remained dry throughout. Finally Red Bull Racing was awarded a race victory with Sebastian Vettel taking the honours after missing out in Bahrain and Melbourne. No reliability problems unlike the previous Grands Prix and the RB6 seemed to be the car to beat this season.

Felipe Massa now leads the championship with 39 points with Malaysian Grand Prix winner Sebastien Vettel moving up to a joint second with Fernando Alonso on 37 points. Reigning world champion Jenson Button and Mercedes GP driver Nico Rosberg are on 35 points. While in the constructors’ chase, the Scuderia still maintains the lead with 76 points, ten ahead of McLaren and 15 over Red Bull Racing.

Race results from Sepang, 56 laps:

1.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      1:33:48.412
2.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      +4.8s
3.  Rosberg      Mercedes              +13.5s
4.  Kubica       Renault               +18.5s
5.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  +21.0s
6.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      +23.4s
7.  Massa        Ferrari               +27.0s
8.  Button       McLaren-Mercedes      +37.9s
9.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    +1m10.6s
10.  Hulkenberg   Williams             +1m13.3s
11.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   +1m18.9s
12.  Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth    +1 lap
13.  Alonso       Ferrari              +2 laps
14.  Di Grassi    Virgin-Cosworth      +3 laps
15.  Chandhok     Hispania-Cosworth    +3 laps
16.  Senna        Hispania-Cosworth    +4 laps
17.  Trulli       Lotus-Cosworth       +5 laps

Fastest lap: Webber 1m37.054s

Not classified/retirements:
Kovalainen   Lotus-Cosworth        46 laps
Petrov       Renault               32 laps
Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  12 laps
Schumacher   Mercedes              9 laps
Kobayashi    Sauber-Ferrari        8 laps
Glock        Virgin-Cosworth       2 laps
De la Rosa   Sauber-Ferrari        0 lap

World Championship standings, round 3:

Drivers:
1.  Massa         39
2.  Vettel        37
3.  Alonso        37
4.  Button        35
5.  Rosberg       35
6.  Hamilton      31
7.  Kubica        30
8.  Webber        24
9.  Sutil         10
10.  Schumacher     9
11.  Liuzzi         8
12.  Barrichello    5
13.  Alguersuari    2
14.  Hulkenberg     1

Constructors:
1.  Ferrari                    76
2.  McLaren-Mercedes           66
3.  Red Bull-Renault           61
4.  Mercedes                   44
5.  Renault                    20
6.  Force India-Mercedes       18
7.  Williams-Cosworth           6
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          2

NEXT RACE: Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai. April 16-18.

Mark Webber achieved his second career pole position for Red Bull Racing with a strong drive on intermediate tyres in the tricky wet conditions at the Sepang International Circuit.

The Australian’s margin over his nearest competitor was impressive – over one second clear – compared to Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel will start the Malaysian Grand Prix in third in the other Red Bull.

As for the McLarens and Ferraris, the top two outfits were caught out by the changeable weather on the wrong sets of Bridgestone and will line up near the rear end of the grid.

Rain played a major part in the qualifying session and after several spins from many cars plus a red flag, the grid for Sunday’s race looks like its going to be another entertaining Grand Prix.

The late decision to remain in the pits in Q1 to see if the conditions improve proved costly for Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, as each driver was struggling on the track.

For the reigning world champion, the McLaren went into spin at Turn 6 and Button was forced to withdraw the rest of the session with his car stuck in the gravel. Jenson will start in P17. His team-mate fared no better with Hamilton spinning on the last corner on his first qualifying run. Lewis was unable to extract a faster lap time due to the increasing rain and will start the Malaysian Grand Prix in P20.

The same problem of being caught out by the rain also affected the Scuderia with Alonso and Massa struggling for grip and decent lap times. In the case of the current championship leader, the Spaniard performed a perfect 1080-degree spin exiting Turn 8 while Massa had a slide through the gravel. The time difference may only be 0.2-0.4 seconds to advance into Q2 but due to the tricky wet conditions, it was extremely unlikely for the Ferraris to find the available time and go through. The pair will start the race in P19 and P21 respectively.

So the prospect of the strongest/fastest cars at the rear of the grid should form an exciting race on Sunday, but what about the rest? Well, the Force India of Adrian Sutil exceeded in the changeable conditions and did a great job to qualify in fourth position. Sutil even had provisional pole in Q3 but then the track conditions improved and Webber was able to take advantage to grab the top spot thanks to his gamble on intermediates. Still, it was an impressive performance by Sutil in the Force India.

The Williams of Nico Hulkenberg lines up fifth, his best qualifying performance for a Formula One rookie. As for Robert Kubica, who had set the pace in Q1, the Renault driver will start the race in sixth position.

On row four is Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher – Williams and Mercedes GP respectively – with Kamui Kobayashi taking Sauber’s first top ten start of the season ahead of Tonio Liuzzi in the other Force India.

The Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersauri form up row seven with Renault’s Vitaly Petrov just missing out on a Q3 spot and will start P11, ahead of Pedro de la Rosa, who was a second off his Sauber team-mate Kobayashi’s Q2 pace.

With the top drivers making mistakes in the rain-interrupted qualifying session, it allowed the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen and Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock to reach Q2 for the first time in their teams’ history. The pair will form row eight. For Heikki, he out-qualified his team-mate Jarno Trulli by a small margin of 0.009 seconds to take P17.

As for the Hispania team, Karun Chandhok out-qualified his team-mate Bruno Senna for the first time as the Brazilian spun off early in Q1. Both beat Lucas di Grassi – who only joined Q1 for the saturated closing minutes as post-practice work on his Virgin over-ran.

Thanks to the wet qualifying session, we have a mixed up grid with the McLarens and Ferraris at the back while at the sharp end is the Red Bulls. More rain is forecast in Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix, so expected to see plenty of action and overtaking.

Qualifying times from Sepang:

1.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:49.327
2.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:50.673
3.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:50.789
4.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:50.914
5.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:51.001
6.  Kubica         Renault                1:51.051
7.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:51.511
8.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:51.717
9.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:51.767
10.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes  1:52.254
11.  Petrov         Renault               1:48.760
12.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari        1:48.771
13.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:49.207
14.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:49.464
15.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth        1:52.270
16.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1:52.520
17.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1:52.211
18.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth        1:52.884
19.  Alonso         Ferrari               1:53.044
20.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes      1:53.050
21.  Massa          Ferrari               1:53.283
22.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth          1:56.299
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth          1:57.269
24.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth       1:59.977

Jenson Button took his first victory for McLaren with a fantastic drive and an inspired tyre strategy in an action-packed Australian Grand Prix.

After many critics complained about the lack of on-track entertainment in the previous event in Bahrain, the race in Albert Park delivered in terms of intense battles and overtaking, all thanks to the rain!

The reigning world champion’s bold early switch from intermediates to slicks paid off, with the race that began in damp conditions. Even though Jenson tapped the former champion Fernando Alonso into a spin at the first corner which also damaged Michael Schumacher’s front wing, he was able to recover from this and benefitted Sebastian Vettel’s brake failure to take the chequered flag in style.

Renault’s Robert Kubica finished in a superb second position, holding off the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. While Nico Rosberg grabbing fifth for Mercedes after a late tangle between Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren and Mark Webber’s Red Bull.

In a direct contrast to the processional race in Sakhir, Melbourne provided thrills and spills, with the race commencing on a damp track.

As the 22-car the field approached Turn 1 for the first time, contact between the slow-starting Alonso and Button sent the Ferrari spinning into Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes, breaking the front wing, with Hamilton taking avoiding action with a trip across the grass.

But a far bigger accident occurred at Turn 6. Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi arrived at the corner missing a front wing and lacking downforce, speared into the wall before sledging back across the track and violently collecting both Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso and Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams mid-corner. That shunt promoted a safety car.

Even though Red Bull Racing took the front row slot, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa made a superb getaway from fifth to split Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber on the opening lap. But the normal formation was resumed two laps after the restart. As the home favourite slipped pass the Brazilian into Turn 6.

The McLarens had ended up sixth and seventh once the first corner chaos unfolded, with Button in front until Hamilton dived past him into Turn 3 on lap six. Jenson then took a risk to pit for dry Bridgestone which initially looked like it was the wrong decision as he skittered over the gravel at Turn 3 on his out lap – but fastest sector times around the rest of the lap proved Button’s gamble was wise.

Soon the whole field took notice of Button’s purple sector times and although the two Red Bulls stayed out longer expecting more rain, both Vettel and Webber pitted for a fresh set of Bridgestone.

That pit-stop went well for Vettel as he rejoined the circuit in front of the all-form Button, who had vaulted to second position thanks to his inspired early tyre switch, but for Webber who pitted until lap ten, it was too late… As Kubica and Rosberg went passed followed by Massa as the Australian exited the pits.

Sebastian soon started to edge away from his rival Jenson, while Kubica and Rosberg dropping back from the two leaders. Behind them, we had an epic racing scenario, mostly involving drivers trying to get around Massa.

Webber surged down the inside of the Ferrari into Turn 1 on lap 15, with Hamilton immediately following the Red Bull through and then attacking Webber into Turn 3 – where both went wide, with the Australian going right over the gravel. That allowed Felipe back ahead of Lewis, while by the time Mark regained the asphalt the charging Fernando had also gone through, the Bahrain winner making an aggressive fightback following his first lap spin.

Six laps later Hamilton successfully passed Massa for fifth into Turn 1, despite the Ferrari’s best defensive efforts, with Alonso trying to do likewise into Turn 3, only to run wide on the still-damp extremes of the track and lose a place to Webber again!

Once free of Massa, Hamilton charged straight onto the gearbox of Rosberg’s Silver Arrows and took fourth with an incredible pass around the outside into the sixth gear Turn 11. That cost the McLaren momentum onto the next straight and Rosberg looked set to repass him into Turn 13 – but had to back off due to yellow flags as moments earlier race leader Vettel had slid into the gravel as his Red Bull suffered a brake failure.

Poor Sebastian. Yet again, he was driving well but to record another DNF is a major disappointment. Better reliability is needed if Red Bull Racing wants to win the championship.

With Vettel out of the race, Button found himself in the lead by six seconds over Kubica with Hamilton determined to get by.

By half-distance many drivers were struggling with tyre degradation on the soft compound once the track dried and for Hamilton, Rosberg and Webber, the trio made the decision to pit for a fresh set rubber.

Webber pitted on lap 31, and managed to get around Rosberg through Turns 2 and 3 as the Mercedes rejoined after its stop a lap later. Hamilton waited two laps longer and stayed ahead of the now-flying Webber, despite a scare at Turn 13 when he took to the grass but was able to muscle back in front of the Red Bull at Turn 14 as it too slid wide.

Button had no concerns about tyre wear and continued to pull away from the Sauber of Kubica, who now had both Ferraris hounding him, while half a minute behind Button, Hamilton, Webber and Rosberg made the most of their fresher tyres to take time advantage out of the leaders.

With eight laps left, Kubica, Massa, Alonso, Hamilton and Webber were running close together holding second to sixth positions, with Rosberg gaining on this train of cars as well. Hamilton’s tyres went off again in the Ferraris’ dirty air, but he still got alongside Alonso into Turn 13 two laps from the end. As Alonso kept Hamilton to the outside, Webber hit the back of the McLaren under braking, smashing the Red Bull’s front wing and spinning Hamilton through the gravel. The latter rejoined in sixth, with Webber falling to ninth spot.

This was a frustrating end for Lewis Hamilton’s trouble weekend and it was no surprise to hear the McLaren driver voicing his strong opinions after the chequered flag.

As for his team-mate Jenson Button, he stayed out of the mayhem – maintaining his tyres in perfect shape – to score his dream victory for the team. His margin over Kubica was a comfortable 12 seconds.

Although Adrian Sutil was an early retirement for Force India, team-mate Tonio Liuzzi managed to score again with seventh – passing Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa earlier and then gaining another position when Rubens Barrichello decided to pit for new tyres and dropped from eighth to tenth. He then inherited seventh thanks to the Hamilton/Webber tangle.

As for Michael Schumacher, it was another sub-par performance for the seven-time world champion. It didn’t help that he was delayed in the first corner incident and he spent most of the other laps stuck behind Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso. Eventually he passed the young Spaniard and both were able to get pass the struggling de la Rosa, allowing Michael to at least salvage a point for Mercedes GP.

Heikki Kovalainen got to the finish for Lotus in P13, with Karun Chandhok also going the distance for Hispania in P14. A great achievement for the team considering the lack of testing. As for the other new team cars, Jarno Trulli didn’t make the start for Lotus due to hydraulic problems. Renault’s Vitaly Petrov was the other retirement, spinning into the gravel on lap nine.

So a fantastic result for Jenson Button and McLaren, but an even greater one for the sport’s reputation. After the heavy criticism following the season-opener Bahrain Grand Prix, the race in Melbourne provided many on-track action and incidents to entertain the fans. Perhaps the FIA should organise more racing events in the changeable weather conditions from now on?

Race results from Albert Park, 58 laps:

1.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           1h33:36.531
2.  Kubica        Renault                    +12.034
3.  Massa         Ferrari                    +14.488
4.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +16.304
5.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +16.683
6.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +29.898
7.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +59.847
8.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +1:00.536
9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +1:07.319
10. Schumacher    Mercedes                   +1:09.391
11. Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1:11.301
12. De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari             +1:14.084
13. Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +2 laps
14. Chandhok      HRT-Cosworth               +4 laps

Not classified/retirements:

Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              41 laps
Vettel        Red Bull-Renault             26 laps
Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth              25 laps
Sutil         Force India-Mercedes         12 laps
Petrov        Renault                      10 laps
Senna         HRT-Cosworth                 5 laps
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari           1 lap
Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth            1 lap
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               1 lap
Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth               1 lap

World Championship standings, round 2:

Drivers:
1.  Alonso        37
2.  Massa         33
3.  Button        31
4.  Hamilton      23
5.  Rosberg       20
6.  Kubica        18
7.  Vettel        12
8.  Schumacher     9
9.  Liuzzi         8
10. Webber         6
11. Barrichello    5

Constructors:
1.  Ferrari                    70
2.  McLaren-Mercedes           54
3.  Mercedes                   29
4.  Red Bull-Renault           18
5.  Renault                    18
6.  Force India-Mercedes        8
7.  Williams-Cosworth           5

NEXT RACE: Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang. April 2-4.

Sebastian Vetted and Mark Webber will start Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix from the front row after dominating the qualifying session in Melbourne.

The Adrian Newey designed RB6 was the class of the Formula One field around the 3.295-mile street circuit and both drivers were able to extract the extra performance to turn the session into a battle royale.

Vettel edged out his team-mate by just over a tenth of a second with a sensational lap. The young German recorded a time of one minute, 23.919 seconds (the only lap below the one minute, 24 seconds and in doing so, smashes the old lap record set by fellow countryman Michael Schumacher back in 2004).

Even that wild moment in the last timed sector – in which Sebastian kept his foot down on the throttle as the car snapped into oversteer – was unable to affect his lap time in taking that all-important pole position.

As for home crowd favourite Webber, he had the opportunity to take the top spot but lost crucial time in the middle sector of his best lap, having been fastest of all in sectors one and three. The Australian will start his home race in second.

Bahrain Grand Prix winner Fernando Alonso was the only contender to challenge the Red Bulls in qualifying. The Ferrari driver best time was one minute, 24.111 seconds, just under two tenths shy of pole position.

World champion Jenson Button was only fourth quickest but the gap between his McLaren and the leading Red Bull was a surprise. Just six tenths of a second! That difference in performance is a worry for Jenson, as he seeks to defend his drivers’ title from his rivals. McLaren will need to step up in order to challenge Red Bull for championship honours.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa lines up in sixth ahead of the Mercedes GP duo of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher – with the young German again out-qualifying his more experienced colleague – although the pair did struggle to get the best from the soft set of Bridgestone during the session.

Rubens Barrichello will start the race in eighth for Williams with Renault’s Robert Kubica in ninth while the fastest Force India of Adrian Sutil completed the top ten.

The surprise of Q2 was Lewis Hamilton’s failure to get through to Q3. The McLaren driver seemed to be struggling with his car balance (possibly caused by the tyre pressure) and missed out on the top-ten shootout by 0.064 seconds. He will start the Australian Grand Prix in a disappointing P11.

Behind the 2008 world champion, Sebastien Buemi lines up P12 for Toro Rosso ahead of Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi, BMW Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa, Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg, BMW Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi, Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari and Renault’s Vitaly Petrov.

As expected, the six drivers at the three new teams were all eliminated in Q1. The HRT again propped up at the rear end of the grid – Bruno Senna taking P23 ahead of Karun Chandhok – but encouragingly got within six seconds of the outright pace in Q1 and within a second of Timo Glock’s faster Virgin Racing in P21. Team-mate Lucas di Grass will start the race in P22.

The Lotus Racing drivers finished up fastest of the new teams, with Heikki Kovalainen just over three tenths clear of team-mate Jarno Trulli.

Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix should be a better spectacle compared to the dull season opener in Bahrain. Many critics have complained about the lack of on-track action in particular overtaking. Hopefully the nature of this street circuit in Melbourne, with the concrete walls and the use of the safety car if there are accidents, will provide better entertainment.

Qualifying times from Albert Park:

1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault      1:23.919
2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1:24.035
3.  Alonso         Ferrari               1:24.111
4.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1:24.675
5.  Massa          Ferrari               1:24.837
6.  Rosberg        Mercedes              1:24.884
7.  Schumacher     Mercedes              1:24.927
8.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth     1:25.217
9.  Kubica         Renault               1:25.372
10.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1:26.036
11.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:25.184
12.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:25.638
13.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes  1:25.743
14.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari       1:25.747
15.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1:25.748
16.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari        1:25.777
17.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:26.089
18.  Petrov         Renault               1:26.471
19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth        1:28.797
20.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth        1:29.111
21.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1:29.592
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth       1:30.185
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth          1:30.526
24.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth          1:30.613

Fernando Alonso takes the first win of the new 2010 season leading a Ferrari one-two at the Bahrain International Circuit. Felipe Massa finishes in second with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in third.

This race victory is a dream scenario for Alonso. After a frustrating season with Renault, it’s fantastic to see the Spaniard winning on his debut at the Scuderia. That first corner move on his Ferrari team-mate was crucial. For Massa, to finish in second position following his horrifying accident last year is a great achievement.

As for Sebastian Vettel, who led from the opening lap in the Red Bull, his Luscious Liz suffered a technical failure (not the exhaust as reported earlier but in fact the engine) meaning a loss of power. A real shame as the German was driving faultlessly. To finish fourth was a small reward but at least the pace of the RB6 is good despite the reliability problem. Without that issue, it would have been a straightforward lights-to-flag win for Vettel and Red Bull Racing.

The Silver Arrows finished in fifth and sixth, with Nico Rosberg out-performing his more experience team-mate Michael Schumacher all weekend. The young German has certainly put his world champion colleague in the shade with consistent and impressive performances. In Michael’s case, he really needs to step up his game in order to stay competitive after three years out of the sport.

It was a difficult race for the current world champion Jenson Button. The McLaren driver spent most of the Grand Prix stuck behind slower cars including his old former team now rebranded as Mercedes. To finish seventh is not the ideal result to defend his title but better performance from McLaren will come.

Mark Webber had a trouble-free run to eighth despite his Red Bull emitting huge plumes of white smoke on the opening lap. Unsighted in the smoke, Renault’s Robert Kubica and Force India’s Adrian Sutil made contact and spun, although they recovered to finish the 49-lap race in eleventh and twelfth respectively.

Finishing in between the Renault-powered cars is Vitantonio Liuzzi in the Force India with Rubens Barrichello taking the final point-scoring position for Williams.

As for the Formula One rookies, this was a tough race for Nico Hulkenberg and Vitaly Petrov. For Hulkenberg, he lost control of his Williams around the tricky and twisting section of the Bahrain track. As for Petrov, he was forced to retire in the pits with a suspension problem. The Renault driver felt he may have caused this by hitting a kerb too hard but prior to this, he was making a steady progress.

Lotus F1 Racing should be extremely satisfied to get both cars to the chequered flag, with Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli within three seconds of the pace at times on their way to P15 and P16, although the Italian had to nurse a mechanical problem in the final laps.

The same cannot be said to Hispania and Virgin Racing sadly. With limited running in the build-up to the Bahrain Grand Prix, Karun Chandhok lost control of his car as early as lap two. While his team-mate Bruno Senna had a suspected hydraulic problem 16 laps later. Virgin Racing was also forced to retire both cars. Hydraulic issues stopping Lucas di Grassi after two laps with team-mate Timo Glock hitting gearbox trouble.

After setting some impressive lap times during testing, Sauber’s pace was very disappointing. Both Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi was forced to quit with hydraulic issues mid-race.

So a great result for Fernando Alonso, his first victory since the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix. It wasn’t the most exciting race after all the hype leading up to the Bahrain Grand Prix but in terms of competition between the top four teams, it is really close. Hopefully a better show in the following Australian Grand Prix will provide more entertainment and overtaking.

Race results, Bahrain Grand Prix. 49 laps:

1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h39:20.396
2.  Massa         Ferrari                    +16.099
3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +23.182
4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +38.713
5.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +40.263
6.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +44.180
7.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +45.260
8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +46.308
9.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +53.089
10.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth         +1:02.400
11.  Kubica        Renault                   +1:09.093
12.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes      +1:22.958
13.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari        +1:32.656
14.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth         +1 lap
15.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth            +1 lap
16.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari        +3 laps
17.  Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth            +3 laps

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:58.287

Not classified/retirements:

De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari               30 laps
Senna         HRT-Cosworth                 18 laps
Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              17 laps
Petrov        Renault                      14 laps
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               12 laps
Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth              3 laps
Chandhok      HRT-Cosworth                 2 laps

World Championship standings, round 1:

Drivers:
1.  Alonso        25
2.  Massa         18
3.  Hamilton      15
4.  Vettel        12
5.  Rosberg       10
6.  Schumacher     8
7.  Button         6
8.  Webber         4
9.  Liuzzi         2
10.  Barrichello    1

Constructors:
1.  Ferrari                    43
2.  McLaren-Mercedes           21
3.  Mercedes                   18
4.  Red Bull-Renault           16
5.  Force India-Mercedes        2
6.  Williams-Cosworth           1

Next race: Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne. March 26-28.

Sebastian Vettel kicked off his 2010 campaign with a fine pole position for Red Bull Racing, holding off a strong challenge from the Scuderia at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The German needed just one single run at the end of qualifying three to displace the Ferrari of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso at the front of the expanded 24-car field. His time around the extended Bahrain track was one minute, 54.101 seconds, earning his sixth career pole.

As for the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, making his Grand Prix comeback after three years away from the sport, the Mercedes driver could only manage seventh – one position ahead of the current world champion Jenson Button in the McLaren.

Fernando Alonso had held provisional pole early in Q3, as Ferrari opted to go for two qualifying runs in the final part of the session. But Vettel’s impressive lap time in his ‘Luscious Liz’ was 0.9 seconds quicker than the Spaniard’s initial best, and proved unbeatable as the others recorded their best time.

The Ferrari pair improved on their second attempt with Massa edging out his new team-mate by a margin of 0.366 seconds but it wasn’t enough to displace Vettel in the Red Bull RB6.

As for Lewis Hamilton, his first Q3 lap was a shock. He was nearly two seconds off the pace compared to the Ferraris and yet he was still a second down to Sebastian after improving to take fourth spot. Much focus has been on that controversial and yet clever snorkel/rear wing aero device fitted on the MP4-25, but the raw pace is somewhat lacking when compared to the Red Bull and Ferrari.

Even though all attention is on Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP team-mate Nico Rosberg is setting the better lap times in the other Silver Arrows. In fact, the young German has been consistently out-performing his more experienced colleague in all the sessions leading up to qualifying (as much as 0.5 seconds). The end result means Rosberg in P5 with M. Schumacher in seventh behind Mark Webber’s Red Bull.

What about the current world champion? Well, the new McLaren driver had a scare in Q2 when his first attempt was only the eleventh quickest time (not good enough to make into the top-ten shootout). Jenson improved slightly on his second run and just squeezed in – edging out his old Brawn GP colleague Rubens Barrichello – which eventually became eighth in Q3. Although Rubens will have the last laugh, as the Williams driver will start the Bahrain race with a fresh set of Bridgestone compared to Jenson’s used tyres.

Barrichello takes eleventh, with Force India’s Tonio Liuzzi between the Brazilian and Williams team-mate Nico Hulkenberg – who was the highest qualifying rookie as Renault’s Vitaly Petrov took P17 behind the Saubers (Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi) and Sebastien Buemi in the Toro Rosso.

As for the new teams, it was unlikely to see Lotus, Virgin Racing and Hispania making pass Q1 due to a lack of preparation.

In the defence of Virgin Racing, Timo Glock did a solid job in taking P19, just one place behind the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari. The Lotus of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen took P20 and P21 respectively with newcomer Lucas di Grassi in P22 for Virgin.

As for the HRT team, Indian driver Karun Chandhon treated the qualifying session as a shakedown test due to hydraulic problems with the new car. With limited mileage, it was not a surprise to see Chandhon running ten seconds off the pace but at least he completed seven laps and was within 1.7 seconds to team-mate Bruno Senna, who had the extra time to drive the car during Friday’s practice sessions. The race will be a different matter as reliability will be a key issue.

Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix is going to be fascinating. Can Vettel translate this pole position into race victory? The race pace seems good though there might be an issue with tyre wear. As for the Ferraris, their performance has been excellent, lapping consistently and the F10 is handling well. Will we see Massa taking the chequered flag or a dream victory for Alonso? What about the Mercedes-powered cars? Can Rosberg and Hamilton spring a surprise? All this plus no refuelling will make the opening race of the 2010 Formula One season that bit more special.

Qualifying results, Bahrain:

1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:54.101
2.  Massa          Ferrari                1:54.242
3.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:54.608
4.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:55.217
5.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:55.241
6.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:55.284
7.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:55.524
8.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:55.672
9.  Kubica         Renault                1:55.885
10.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:56.309
11.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:55.330
12.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:55.653
13.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:55.857
14.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:56.237
15.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:56.265
16.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:56.270
17.  Petrov         Renault                1:56.619
18.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:57.071
19.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:59.728
20.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:59.852
21.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         2:00.313
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        2:00.587
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           2:03.240
24.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth           2:04.904