Melbourne was a tad damp today and ahead of qualifying the rain increased, leaving lots of standing water (aka puddles) on the track. The first round of qualifying was delayed by 10minutes, but the session wasn’t continued due to yet more rain falling.
Rounds 2 and 3 of qualifying for the Aussie GP have been postponed until Sunday morning (11am Melbourne time, midnight UK time)
For now, here’s the final six places on the grid, as decided in Q1 today.
It was a shocker for Pastor Maldonado, who claims his Williams is “undriveable”. Meanwhile his rookie teammate, Valtteri Bottas thought it was pretty good and got himself through the first round and will continue to qualify tomorrow.
The two Marussia drivers had a successful session, finishing ahead of the Caterham duo with Pic binning his car into a wall in the dying moments of the session. Sauber’s rookie driver, Esteban Gutierrez also failed to make it through the first round and also binned his car too, lining up behind Maldonado in 18th.
| POS | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams/Renault | 1'47.614 |
| 18 | Esteban Gutirrez | Sauber/Ferrari | 1'47.776 |
| 19 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia/Cosworth | 1'48.147 |
| 20 | Max Chilton | Marussia/Cosworth | 1'48.909 |
| 21 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham/Renault | 1'49.519 |
| 22 | Charles Pic | Caterham/Renault | 1'50.626 |
