2013 FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX Qualifying 2 and 3

Qualifying 2

After all the chaotic first wet session yesterday at Albert Park, all the remaining 17 drivers starts their Sunday morning with intermediates tyres. The track condition may or may not good enough for running slicks but McLaren was the first team to let their drivers to try on the super soft dry tyres. Unfortunately faster time by other drivers on inters kept being set and both Button and Perez could not kept the temperature up in their tyres in the still damp third sector of the track. Button then put back in a set of inters to go for the final run and made it 4th fastest in Q2. Perez was told by his engineer by radio to keep putting temperature in to his second set of super soft which he could not manage to do it and settle for the 15th grid slot joining Nico Hulkenberg, both Toro Rossos and Bottas in the knockout zone.

Qualifying 3

First part of Q3 is about clearing water out of the third sector and some driver stayed in the garage for others to do the job. Button was the first one out to try with super soft as track condition improves. Eventually all drivers remains were on super soft and kept pushing hard for their final two flying laps.

Vettel managed to get his first pole on the season by beating his local hero Webber by four-tenth of a second which means front row for Red Bull. Lewis also had a good run on his final flying lap by running third, followed by two Ferraris Massa and Alonso. After setting fastest time on inters on both Q1 and Q2, Nico settled on sixth, followed by both Lotus. Great job by Paul with his time beating his fellow Brit Jenson for the last two spots.


So here we have the final starting grid for this afternoon.

1. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1m 27.407s
2. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1m 27.827s
3. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 28.087s
4. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 28.490s
5. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 28.493s
6. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 28.523s
7. Kimi Raikkonen Finand Lotus-Renault 1m 28.738s
8. Romain Grosjean France Lotus-Renault 1m 29.013s
9. Paul di Resta Britain Force India-Mercedes 1m 29.305s
10. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1m 30.357s

11. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Sauber-Ferrari 1m 38.067s
12. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 1m 38.134s
13. Jean-Eric Vergne France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 38.778s
14. Daniel Ricciardo Australia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 39.042s
15. Sergio Perez Mexico McLaren-Mercedes 1m 39.900s
16. Valtteri Bottas Finland Williams-Renault 1m 40.290s

17. Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Williams-Renault 1m 47.614s
18. Esteban Gutierrez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari 1m 47.776s
19. Jules Bianchi France Marussia-Cosworth 1m 48.147s
20. Max Chilton Britain Marussia-Cosworth 1m 48.909s
21. Giedo van der Garde Holland Caterham-Renault 1m 49.519s
22. Charles Pic France Caterham-Renault 1m 50.626s

Text: Billy Wan
Photo: BBC Sports
Timing: Crash.net