Vettel, Webber on front row at Australian GP
Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel has taken his second straight pole
of the Formula One season, besting teammate and local hope Mark
Webber in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday.
Vettel's time of 1 minute, 23.919 seconds around the Albert
Park circuit dashed the hopes of local fans cheering for Webber,
but the front-row monopoly of the grid put Red Bull in a good
position to make amends for missing out on a win in Bahrain two
weeks ago.
"It's Mark's home race, but last year he had pole in Germany,
so it's kind of revenge," Vettel said. "Tomorrow it will be much
more about having a tidy race because usually a lot of things
happen here.
"We did not get the job done in Bahrain, so we will try to do
it here."
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who won the season-opener in
Bahrain after Vettel's car had a mysterious mechanical failure when
leading the first GP under the new ban on in-race refueling,
qualified in third place while teammate Felipe Massa was fifth.
"It's definitely not ideal in terms of looking for a win, but
all the same, I will try and bring home a good number of points,"
Massa said. "This race is very tough, partly because, as we have
seen often in the past, anything can happen here."
Separating the Ferraris was McLaren's world champion Jenson
Button, whose teammate Lewis Hamilton added to his collection of
forgettable recent Australian experiences by missing out on the
final session of qualifying and will start from 11th.
Hamilton had his road car impounded by local police on Friday
night for dangerous driving on his way from the circuit to the team
hotel. He was disqualified from last year's Australian Grand Prix
and was later found to have lied to race stewards.
Mercedes' Nico Rosberg qualified sixth, once again bettering
his teammate and seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who
was seventh.
Williams' Rubens Barrichello, Renault's Robert Kubica and
Force India's Adrian Sutil rounded out the top 10.
"In general I would guess the ranking that we see now
reflects the situation well, and our performance is probably the
maximum for our car at the moment," Schumacher said. "Anyhow, we
still have a lot in hand for tomorrow's race, and I am on the clean
side of the grid for the start."
Webber, who had never finished better than fifth in nine
races at his home GP, was disappointed not to have got the better
of Vettel.
"I would have loved to have been on pole, but second is still
a good result," Webber said.
Alonso was confident about his chances in Sunday's race,
given that his team showed better reliability in Bahrain and the
Melbourne race is notoriously tough on the cars with many
retirements expected and late rain forecast.
"I am extremely happy with the position in the top three,"
Alonso said. "This is the start of the weekend - tomorrow is the
real job."