Vettel’s fastest lap in the Q3 – 1:23.919, the fastest lap time ever recorded at the Albert Park circuit – was more than impressive, as he set it early in the session and wasn’t challenged by any of his rivals until the final second. Mark Webber tried hard to reward the big Aussie crowd with a pole position, but his best effort was 0.116 shy of his teammate’s, therefore settling for 2nd overall.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was the 3rd and last driver to set a competitive time in Q3, as the Spaniard finished the Saturday qualifying some 0.192 seconds behind Vettel. The Spaniard never led the Q3 to begin with, but consistently improved his lap times until ending more than half of second ahead of 4th placed Jenson Button (1:24.675)
Alonso’s teammate Felipe Massa had to settle for 5th place after playing it low for the entire Saturday action, ahead of Mercedes GP’s duo Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. The Top 10 was completed by Rubens Barrichello, Robert Kubica and Adrian Sutil.
As far as the 2008 F1 champion Lewis Hamilton is concerned, the Brit failed to get into Q3 on Saturday, as a late effort from Adrian Sutil threw the McLaren driver outside the Top 10 battle. He will start the race from 11th place, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Buemi and Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi.
The Q1 saw some impressive improvements for Hispania Racing F1 Team – at least as compared to its fellow new entrants – as Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok closed the gap to less than a second from Virgin Racing, while approximately 2 seconds behind Lotus.
Full results HERE.
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