Inspired Vettel denies Webber Oz pole
Date published : 27 Mar 2010 - 07:09:00
Sebastian Vettel stole team-mate and home favourite Mark Webber's thunder with a virtuoso performance in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.Having topped both knockout sessions, the young German secured his second straight pole position with a spectacular Q3 lap, edging Webber by 0.1s as Red Bull once again proved the team to beat in qualifying.Bahrain winner Fernando Alonso led the Ferrari challenge in third, two places and some 0.7s ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa.Jenson Button banished his Sakhir qualifying blues to claim a strong fourth on the grid, while McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton was a shock Q2 casualty and will line up 11th.Despite signs in final practice that it would be a major force, Mercedes had to make do sixth and seventh places, a full second off Vettel's pole time.Nico Rosberg again won the intra-team battle with Michael Schumacher but this time by a mere 0.043s as the seven-time world champion steps up the pace at the second event of his F1 comeback.Behind the four front-running teams, Rubens Barrichello qualified a fine eighth for Williams ahead of Renault's Robert Kubica and Force India's Adrian Sutil.Vettel's pole-winning lap, set in the middle part of Q3 when the track was at its quickest, was a real seat-of-the-pants classic.Such was his speed and commitment through the 150mph turn 11/12 chicane that he had to change up to sixth gear halfway through it and things got even more harum-scarum from there as he survived a big oversteering slide in turn 14 and a lock-up into the penultimate corner.Webber had no reply and admitted he was a little miffed to be upstaged by his team-mate on home ground, so will be more than keen turn the tables in Sunday's race.After the embarrassment of being pulled over by the Melbourne police for his antics in his Mercedes road car on Friday evening, Hamilton was hoping to get his weekend back on track with a strong qualifying performance.Instead the 2008 world champion struggled for pace with a nervous-looking MP4-25, got out of synch with the other runners during Q2 and found himself shuffled down into the relegation zone.The other six names eliminated at the Q2 stage were more predictable: Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso), Tonio Liuzzi (Force India), Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber), Nico Hulkenberg (Williams), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) and Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso).Vitaly Petrov fell at the Q1 hurdle after struggling mightily with his Renault's handling, the Russian rookie joining the six drivers from the new teams on the sidelines.Having been beaten by Virgin to best newcomer honours in Bahrain qualifying, Lotus redressed the balance here and maintained the advantage it has held throughout this meeting.Heikki Kovalainen comfortably outpaced team-mate Jarno Trulli, who was hampered by a broken seat, while Timo Glock had a 0.6s edge over Virgin team-mate Lucas di Grassi.The two Hispania drivers predictably brought up the rear and given their extremely limited mileage did well to lap within 6s of Vettel's Q1 benchmark.Australian GP starting grid 1 VETTEL Red Bull 2 WEBBER Red Bull 3 ALONSO Ferrari 4 BUTTON McLaren 5 MASSA Ferrari 6 ROSBERG Mercedes 7 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 8 BARRICHELLO Williams 9 KUBICA Renault 10 SUTIL Force India 11 HAMILTON McLaren12 BUEMI Toro Rosso 13 LIUZZI Force India 14 DE LA ROSA Sauber 15 HULKENBERG Williams 16 KOBAYASHI Sauber 17 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 18 PETROV Renault 19 KOVALAINEN Lotus 20 TRULLI Lotus 21 GLOCK Virgin 22 DI GRASSI Virgin 23 SENNA HRT 24 CHANDHOK HRT
