After an 19 hour wait for the remaining qualifying sessions to run due to the heavy rain, it was the usual suspects of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber leading the field with a front row lock at Albert Park.
Sebastian Vettel made the most of a drying track to beat his Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber to take his 37th career pole position.
Damp conditions for the delayed remainder of qualifying raised hopes of a mixed-up grid, but in the end the pole shootout took place on slicks on a nearly-dry circuit, and it was the champion team that prevailed.
Vettel put himself a second and a half ahead of the field with his one minute, 27.407 seconds lap around the street circuit in Melbourne.
Webber looked poised to beat it until a mistake at the penultimate corner left him 0.420 seconds adrift. Vettel was improving further on his next lap before pitting when it became clear he was unbeatable.
Lewis Hamilton kick-started Mercedes GP’s season with third on the grid, 0.6 seconds off Vettel’s pace.
That was three places higher than team-mate Nico Rosberg, despite the German having been the class of the field when the track was wet. He comfortably topped Q2, having also gone fastest in Saturday’s Q1.
The Ferraris split the Mercedes, Felipe Massa outqualifying team-mate Fernando Alonso by 0.003 seconds to grab fourth position.
Row four will be filled by the Lotus duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. The Iceman starts ahead of his team-mate.
Paul di Resta got as high as second for Force India early in Q3 when intermediates were still the best choice. But on slicks he was pushed back to ninth, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button, the first driver to come out on dry tyres in the pole segment.
Several drivers had tried slicks in the final minutes of Q2, but this move proved premature.
While Button immediately returned to intermediates, his team-mate Sergio Perez persisted with slicks and found himself P15 on his McLaren debut.
Having looked a likely top-five man on intermediates, the slick move left Jean-Eric Vergne only P13, albeit ahead of inter-shod Toro Rosso team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
Valtteri Bottas discovered slicks made no difference to Williams’s plight in P16, while Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber and Adrian Sutil’s Force India had the right tyres but were still squeezed back to row six.
So after a lengthy delay, we have a grid for the race and that takes place on the same day too!
Qualifying times at Albert Park:
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m27.407s
2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m27.827s
3. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m28.087s
4. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m28.490s
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m28.493s
6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m28.523s
7. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m28.738s
8. Romain Grosjean Lotus Renault 1m29.013s
9. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m29.305s
10. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m30.357s
11. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m38.067s
12. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m38.134s
13. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m38.778s
14. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m39.042s
15. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1m39.900s
16. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m40.290s
17. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m37.593s
17. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m47.614s
18. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m47.776s
19. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1m48.147s
20. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m48.909s
21. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m49.519s
22. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m50.626s
107 per cent time: 1m50.616s
After locking out the front row for the 2013 Australian Grand Prix, the Red Bull drivers felt relieved given the weather situation. Autosport.com has the news story.
Red Bull duo Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber expressed relief at securing a front row lockout at the Australian Grand Prix followed the qualifying delay.
The duo came through tricky wet conditions, and a postponed Q2 and Q3, to deliver the top two grid positions, and both admitted that it had been far from straightforward.
“It was definitely not easy in these conditions,” said Vettel. “I had a surprising feeling going out for Q3 as the circuit looked quite dry, but once you were committed to the time schedule there was no way back.
“I had two good runs – one on inters and one on dries – and got into the groove. The car felt similar in balance to what I had on Friday, so I was happy and ready to push on the lap.
“It was tricky to find the limit in these conditions, especially in the fast bit, Turns 11 and 12. But overall I am pretty happy with the lap and, as soon as I got confirmation it was enough, I pulled in to save the tyres.”
Webber added: “In those conditions it was easy to make errors – that’s for the driver, the procedure, and the planning.
“We survived yesterday and got through today close to the maximum we could. It was chaotic to get all the planning right, and all the drivers were frustrated we didn’t go to the slicks earlier.
“But only five per cent of the job is done. The big job is this afternoon.”
TYRES STILL A FEAR FOR RACE
Both men are cautious about how the tyre strategy will unfold in the race, with the super-soft tyres having been pushed hard in qualifying.
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Melbourne F1 2013″I think it [the tyre situation] is an unknown at this stage,” explained Vettel. “All we can say is that it is surprisingly cool, a lot cooler than we were expecting…
“I don’t know what is realistic, it could be a couple of laps or a couple of laps more. We have to go with what we have.”
Webber said: “There have to be some calls made on tyres and strategy, and we have to see how the balance of cars are.
“It is going to be a tight GP, as if you are not in the window with tyres and balance, things can blow open.”
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was very pleased to have qualified in third position at Albert Park. Autosport.com has the details.
Lewis Hamilton labelled his third place on the Australian Grand Prix grid as an incredible result for his Mercedes debut.
The Briton, moving from McLaren to Mercedes this year, will start from the second row of the grid after being beaten only by the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
With Mercedes having struggled in the latter part of the 2012 season, Hamilton hailed his team’s winter progress.
“It is incredible. Incredible,” said Hamilton, who will start three places ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg. “What an incredible job they have done from last year.
“We feel we can have a car we can really work with, it’s a great foundation we can work on.”
The 2008 world champion also praised his team’s handling of the changeable weather in qualifying.
“The guys did fantastic job to get us out in time,” he said. “It was tricky out there. I’m happy I could get the job done as these guys [Red Bull] are incredibly quick.
“I’m happy with the job we have done and to be this far up coming into the season.”
While Hamilton starred with his new team, his former squad McLaren struggled for pace, with Jenson Button finishing down in 10th position and Sergio Perez knocked out in Q2.
Hamilton, who drove for McLaren for six years, believes the Woking team will be able to bounce back.
“I have never looked back once I made the choice and never had any regrets about it. I don’t know what difficulties they are having but they had a fantastic car last year, no doubt they will pick it up.
“When I was there we had rough starts, but I believe they can pick it up together.”
Jean-Eric Vergne said his team Toro Rosso team was responsible for the incorrect call to take slick tyres in Q2 in Melbourne.
Vergne had looked set to reach Q3 as he showed strong pace in damp conditions, but ended up being one of just four drivers to go for slicks in the second segment.
That proved to be the wrong choice. Although Vergne ended up the best placed of those who stayed on slicks to the end of Q2, that left him only 13th on the grid.
The Frenchman said he had wanted to stay on intermediates, but assumed Toro Rosso had better information than him.
“Qualifying was going quite well on my first run,” said Vergne.
“However, when I came into the pits after the long first run on intermediates, I was expecting to fit the same type of tyres again. But the team opted to put me on slicks.
“I believed they had a better picture of the situation than I did, but it turned out to be the wrong choice and cost me a chance to get into Q3, which is a shame.”
Vergne’s team-mate Daniel Ricciardo starts beside him on row seven.
Source: Autosport.com