• Australian Grand Prix - Qualifying
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Vettel breezes to pole at Albert Park

ESPNF1 Staff
March 26, 2011
Sebastian Vettel took pole ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber © Getty Images
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Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel took pole position with ease for the first race of the season in Australia, beating Lewis Hamilton to the top spot by 0.778 seconds.

The world champion's dominance never really looked in doubt as he led the way in all three sessions of qualifying and didn't touch his KERS on his final lap. The bigger story, perhaps, is that team-mate Mark Webber was 0.8 seconds off and will start the race from the second row of the grid after being beaten by Hamilton. The McLaren driver hooked up a sensational lap despite his KERS not working - costing him around 0.3 seconds per lap and affecting the behaviour of the rear axle under braking.

The MP4-26 has come on leaps and bounds since the final test, but Jenson Button found it less to his liking as he struggled to get tyre temperature in the overcast conditions. Fernando Alonso will start from fifth as the Ferrari appears to be off the pace of its rivals over a single lap in the cooler conditions. However, the 150th Italia did show good pace over longer runs in winter testing, so he cannot be completely ruled out for Sunday's race.

Vitaly Petrov showed that Renault is in a position to deliver on some of its pre-season promise by taking sixth on the grid. However, he was over 1.5 seconds off Vettel's pole time, showing the gulf between Red Bull and the front of the midfield. Nico Rosberg was the highest placed Mercedes in seventh, ahead of the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa, who appeared to have serious problems with the balance of his car. Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi rounded out the top ten with impressive performances.

Michael Schumacher was the biggest casualty of Q2, failing to make the most of his fresh set of soft tyres on their first flying lap and missing the cut by 0.089 seconds. It was a confidence blow for the seven-time world champion, who had aspirations of challenging for the podium ahead of the race, but it will allow him to start on hard tyres while the cars in front opted for softs.

Schumacher was joined by Jaime Alguersuari, Sergio Perez, Paul di Resta, Pastor Maldonado, Adrian Sutil and Rubens Barrichello in failing to make Q3. Barrichello made a silly mistake at the start of Q2 when he put a wheel on the grass and spun into the gravel at turn three, while Sutil had a worrying moment when he spun in the final corner on a fast lap at the very same moment he deployed the Drag Reduction System. It ruined his lap, but more significantly added weight to the arguments coming from some corners of the paddock that the DRS should not be used in practice and qualifying.

Nick Heidfeld's first race with Renault got off to a shaky start as he failed to make it out of Q1 - his best lap a full two seconds off team-mate Petrov. He was joined by the usual suspects as Lotus' pre-season optimism proved misplaced and its drivers failed to put any distance between themselves and the Virgin duo.

HRT finished outside the 107% rule, meaning Tonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan will have to rely on the good will of the FIA and other teams if they are going to be allowed to start the race. The team completed just a handful of laps in free practice, meaning its 11 laps of running per car in qualifying is the most the new car has completed since its launch.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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