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Vettel Flies to Australian GP Pole

Sebastian Vettel picked up where he left off in Formula 1 and dominated the qualifying action in the season opening Australian Grand Prix, setting the best time in all 3 qualy sessions on Saturday. In the end, he stopped the clock at 1:23.529, almost 8 tenths of a second ahead of nearest rival Lewis Hamilton.

It was actually the McLaren driver who produced the surprise of the day, as he spoiled a perfect 1-2 qualifying performance for Red Bull, improving his time in the last seconds of Q3 and pushing Mark Webber to 3rd place.

Although the two Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were supposed to challenge the Red Bulls for the top spot, it was another McLaren driver who entered the Top 4, as Jenson Button finished almost 2 tenths of a second ahead of the former. Felipe Massa had to settle for 8th place after a struggling performance all afternoon, which ended with a spin in the late stages of Q3.

Renault’s Vitaly Petrov was the 6th qualifier of the day, ahead of Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg. Sauber got itself into the Top 10 thanks to a superb performance from Kamui Kobayashi, while Scuderia Toro Rosso didn’t disappoint the critics and scored a 10th place on the grid through Sebastien Buemi.

Michael Schumacher missed out on the Q3 entry by only 0.089 and will start the race from 11th place, ahead of Jaime Alguersuari and Sergio Perez. The rest of the grid will be as followed: Paul di Resta (Force India), Pastor Maldonado (Williams), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Rubens Barrichello (Williams), Nick Heidfeld (Renault), Team Lotus duo Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, followed by Virgin’s duo Timo Glock and Jerome D’Ambrosio.

The two Hispanias driven by Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan will not be racing tomorrow, as their qualy times did not make the 107 percent cut. Unless they are given dispensation to race on Sunday, they’ll have to pack and leave for Malaysia from as early as tonight.
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