Australian GP: Vettel dominates in qualifying
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| Sebastian Vettel |
It looks like another long year for Red Bull's rivals. Defending F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel dominated qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.
Comfortably quickest in Q1 and Q2, then 0.8 seconds ahead of the rest of the field after the first Q3 runs were complete, Vettel demoralized the opposition. His lap of 1m23.529s secured the 16th pole of Vettel's Formula 1 career and was 8/10ths up on everyone else.
Lewis Hamilton denied Red Bull a front row sweep by getting his McLaren up to second on the final moments, pushing Mark Webber back to third.
Jenson Button completed the top four in the second McLaren, ahead of Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari.
Russian Vitaly Petrov, who does not get enough credit for just how good he is, took a superb sixth for Renault, while Nico Rosberg was seventh and his Mercedes teammate Michael Schumacher 11th.
Results
| POS | DRIVER | NATIONALITY | ENTRANT | TIME |
| 1. | Sebastian Vettel | Germany | Red Bull-Renault | 1:23.529 |
| 2. | Lewis Hamilton | Britain | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:24.307 |
| 3. | Mark Webber | Australia | Red Bull-Renault | 1:24.395 |
| 4. | Jenson Button | Britain | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:24.779 |
| 5. | Fernando Alonso | Spain | Ferrari | 1:24.974 |
| 6. | Vitaly Petrov | Russia | Renault | 1:25.247 |
| 7. | Nico Rosberg | Germany | Mercedes GP | 1:25.421 |
| 8. | Felipe Massa | Brazil | Ferrari | 1:25.599 |
| 9. | Kamui Kobayashi | Japan | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:25.626 |
| 10. | Sebastien Buemi | Switzerland | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:27.066 |
| . | Q2 | . | . | . |
| 11. | Michael Schumacher | Germany | Mercedes GP | 1:25.971 |
| 12. | Jaime Alguersuari | Spain | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:26.103 |
| 13. | Sergio Perez | Mexico | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:26.108 |
| 14. | Paul di Resta | Britain | Force India-Mercedes | 1:26.739 |
| 15. | Pastor Maldonado | Venezuela | Williams-Cosworth | 1:26.768 |
| 16. | Adrian Sutil | Germany | Force India-Mercedes | 1:31.407 |
| 17. | Rubens Barrichello | Brazil | Williams-Cosworth | No Time |
| . | Q1 | . | . | . |
| 18. | Nick Heidfeld | Germany | Renault | 1:27.239 |
| 19. | Heikki Kovalainen | Finland | Lotus-Renault | 1:29.254 |
| 20. | Jarno Trulli | Italy | Lotus-Renault | 1:29.342 |
| 21. | Timo Glock | Germany | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:29.858 |
| 22. | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Belgium | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:30.822 |
| 23. | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Italy | HRT-Cosworth | 1:32.978 |
| 24. | Narain Karthikeyan | India | HRT-Cosworth | 1:34.293 |
107% time: 1m31.266s