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Australian Grand Prix Vettel takes pole as Red Bull dominate

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#1 ·
Australian Grand Prix

Vettel takes pole as Red Bull dominate
ESPNF1 Staff
March 27, 2010
Sebastian Vettel put in a stunning lap for pole © Sutton Images


Sebastian Vettel took pole position ahead of team-mate Mark Webber, as Red Bull put on a dominant display in qualifying ahead of Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was the only man even close to the Red Bulls, after all the other competitors failed to find a competitive pace on soft tyres in the final session. The most disappointing showing of all was from Lewis Hamilton who missed out on Q3, claiming he was unable to extract any more from the car in the conditions. He will line-up eleventh on the grid, eight places off his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button, who proved the MP4-25 was capable of more by qualifying fourth. He said he got the very best out of the car but was still over half a second off Alonso and three quarters of a second off Vettel.

Felipe Massa was fifth after struggling for tyre temperature, ahead of the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher who both bolted on hard tyres in the closing stages. Williams' Rubens Barrichello, Renault's Robert Kubica and Force India's Adrian Sutil rounded off the top ten and will be in the hunt for points tomorrow.

Rain threatened to fall throughout the hour but it didn't feature. The track temperature was lower than it was during practice and that might account for McLaren and Hamilton's problems. On Sunday's grid he will have the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Buemi lining up next to him, after a solid lap saw him qualify ahead of four cars separated by less than a tenth of a second. Leading that pack was Tonio Liuzzi in the Force India, ahead of Pedro de la Rosa in the Sauber, Nico Hulkenberg in the Williams, and Kamui Kobayashi in the other Sauber. Jaime Alguersuari rounded out the top 17.

Vitaly Petrov suffered the first major setback of his rookie year, failing to make it through to Q2 and leaving himself nine places shy of his Renault team-mate Kubica on the grid. He was two seconds clear of the usual suspects at the back of the grid, with Lotus' Heikki Kovalainen leading the battle of the new teams, some five seconds off the pace of Vettel. He was ahead of team-mate Jarno Trulli, the two Virgins and the two HRTs.

Rain is still a threat for Sunday's race and the chances of a safety car are high on the tight but high-speed Albert Park circuit. Red Bull is looking strong but the result s far from decided.
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

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#2 ·
Australian Grand Prix 2010

http://en.espnf1.com/

Qualifying
Driver Teams Time
1 S Vettel (GER) Red Bull 1'23.919
2 M Webber (AUS) Red Bull 1'24.035
3 F Alonso (ESP) Ferrari 1'24.111
4 J Button (GBR) McLaren 1'24.675
5 F Massa (BRA) Ferrari 1'24.837
6 N Rosberg (GER) Mercedes 1'24.884
7 M Schumacher (GER) Mercedes 1'24.927
8 RG Barrichello (BRA) Williams 1'25.217
9 R Kubica (POL) Renault 1'25.372
10 A Sutil (GER) Force India 1'26.036
11 LC Hamilton (GBR) McLaren 1'25.184
12 S Buemi (SUI) Toro Rosso 1'25.638
13 V Liuzzi (ITA) Force India 1'25.743
14 PM de la Rosa (ESP) BMW Sauber 1'25.747
15 N Hülkenberg (GER) Williams 1'25.748
16 K Kobayashi (JPN) BMW Sauber 1'25.777
17 J Alguersuari (ESP) Toro Rosso 1'26.089
18 V Petrov (RUS) Renault 1'26.471
19 H Kovalainen (FIN) Lotus 1'28.797
20 J Trulli (ITA) Lotus 1'29.111
21 T Glock (GER) Virgin 1'29.592
22 L di Grassi (BRA) Virgin 1'30.185
23 B Senna (BRA) HRT F1 1'30.526
24 K Chandhok (IND) HRT F1 1'30.613
 
#3 ·
(GMM) Fernando Alonso on Saturday shed no light on suggestions he might be able to challenge the Red Bulls for victory at Albert Park.

As in Bahrain two weeks ago, the Ferrari driver has qualified third, but the cars ahead of him on the Melbourne grid are both on-form Red Bulls led by back-to-back pole sitter Sebastian Vettel.

Asked if Ferrari's race pace might give him the edge on Sunday evening, the Spaniard answered: "No idea", but he did admit that beating the Renault powered cars "was a difficult thing to do here".

Local hero Webber, 33, was visibly disappointed with second on the grid, as he crassly likened the eight-hundredth gap to his young German teammate as a "bee's d**k".

After his brush with the police on Friday night, Lewis Hamilton was half a second slower than his McLaren teammate and missed the cut for the top ten.

His team boss Martin Whitmarsh told the BBC that the 'hoon' story had been "blown out of proportion" by the media, admitting that Hamilton "will be disappointed with his performance".

With a better showing than in Bahrain was Michael Schumacher, who despite still trailing his teammate Nico Rosberg said Melbourne has been "a little bit more fun" than his comeback event.
 
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