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Sebastian Vettel unleashed an electrifying display of pace to capture the first pole position of the new season for Red Bull in Australia.
A late dash from Lewis Hamilton underlined McLaren’s improvement as he closed within 0.778 seconds of the German to join him on the front row.
Mark Webber’s Red Bull and Jenson Button’s McLaren echoed the pattern in third and fourth places.
Ferrari struggled for speed and Fernando Alonso will start fifth.
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Formula 1: Australian Grand Prix - Race Line Up
Formula 1: Mark Webber Fastest in First Practice at Albert Park
Formula 1: Australian Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Formula 1: Jenson Button Fastest in Second Practice at Albert Park
Formula 1: Australian Grand Prix - Second Practice Results
Formula 1: Sebastian Vettel Fastest in Final Practice at Albert Park
Formula 1: Australian Grand Prix - Final Practice Results
Vettel, who claimed 10 pole positions on his way to last year’s championship, dominated each phase of qualifying around Albert Park and only needed one shot to secure first place on the grid, as the rest of the field failed to reel him in.
His team-mate Webber could not find the pace to match him and finished a massive 0.866secs adrift. BBC Sport
Vitaly Petrov put in a fine performance in his Renault and will line up sixth, followed by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, who finished just under two seconds behind compatriot Vettel.
The remainder of the top 10 was completed by Felipe Massa in his Ferrari, followed by a superb Kamui Kobayashi in his Sauber and the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi.
So much for Michael Schumacher’s new-found confidence in his car, as he expressed this week, as the seven-times world champion’s hopes of pushing the Red Bulls fell completely flat.
Schumacher could only manage 11th in his Mercedes, missing out on a place in the top 10 by 0.889secs to Buemi.
The 42-year-old German will be sandwiched by the Toro Rossos as Jaime Alguersuari starts 12th ahead of Sauber’s Mexican rookie Sergio Perez. Daily Mail
Paul di Resta who’ll start 14th in the Force India after a solid lap of 1m 26.739s.
There was drama for Renault in the dying moments of Q1. Nick Heidfeld vaulted into the top 17 with his final lap, but Massa was on a quick one too for Ferrari, and displaced Robert Kubica’s replacement. That left the German 18th on 1m 27.239s. Behind him came the Lotus T128s of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, closer to the midfield than last year but not close enough, on 1m 29.254s and 1m 29.342s respectively. Timo Glock continued Virgin’s sudden improvement to 21st on 1m 29.858s, with Jerome D’Ambrosio 22nd on 1m 30.822s in the sister car.
Both HRTs ran throughout, and Vitantonio Liuzzi did a fantastic job in only a handful of laps with the brand new car to lap in 1m 32.978s, as team mate Narain Karthikeyan managed 1m 34.295s. But with the 107 percent exclusion lap time at 1m 31.266s based on Vettel’s fastest time of 1m 25.296s, the Spanish cars failed to qualify. Formula1
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