Australian GP qualifying finally sorted

So we made it… eventually. Here are your runners and riders for todays Australian GP. After the slip ‘n’ slide of yesterdays Qualifying 1 and subsequent postponement of Q2 and Q3 (meaning that we all could have stayed in bed…) the teams were back under the still threatening Aussie clouds this morning (night) to sort out the rest of the grid for this afternoons (slash morning depending on where you are, time zones are so confusing) race.

Qualifying 2 saw the Torro Rossos leading a queue of cars looking to get a banker lap in on the still damp track in case the heavens opened once again. That Sebastian Vettel showed the early pace as he posted a 1.38’647 on the drying track but it was the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg that was fastest at the end of the session with a 1’36,194. The big story was at McLaren however who took the gamble to switch to supersofts with time running out. It proved too early for Perez though with the Mexican barely able to keep the car on the track leaving him back in 15th place for his first race with McLaren.

The q3 shootout saw inters once again the flavour of the day early on but with the track drying all the time how long would it be before someone rolled the dice once more on slicks? The answer was about 5 minutes before once again McLaren sent their man out on supersofts. Button fared better than his team-mate though and soon all the remaining runners were switching to the supersoft tyre in a pit-lane developing M25 esque traffic jams. Times tumbled and as the checkered flag came out it was Sebastian Vettel who took pole with a 1’27.407. Bad times continued for McLaren as Button failed to improve on his last lap finishing in p10 and there was a further shock as Massa outpaced Alonso.

Hamilton will be happy with third and it’s encouraging to see that the Mercedes seems to have some pace. That Red Bull one two seems ominous for the season however.

Australian GP Qualifying results in full

Now get to bed young woman/man/driver or you’ll miss the start!