Australia 16th - 18th March
Brief synopsis:-
Q1:-
Nothing too startling happened here.
Usual suspects fell by the wayside:-
HRTx2
Marusiax2 - were Virgin
Caterhamx2 - were Lotus
and one Lotus - were Renault
18. Raikkonen - Lotus
19. Kovalainen - Caterham
20. Petrov - Caterham
21. Glock - Marussia
22. Pic - Marussia
23. de la Rosa - HRT
24. Karthikeyan - HRT
Q2:-
A few cars took trips across the grass during this session, including Vettel, but they were OK
A surprise drop-out in Q2 was Massa, who finished P16, and whose best position had been P14.
While in P5, Alonso lost the rear of his car, spun and went backwards into the gravel trap. He was unable to get the car moving again and so had to sit out the rest of the session watching himself slowly dropping to P12.
This incident caused the session to be Red Flagged with 8 minutes and 10 seconds to go.
11. Vergne - Toro Rosso
12. Alonso - Ferrari
13. Kobayashi - Sauber
14. Senna - Williams
15. Di Resta - Force India
16. Massa - Ferrari
17. Perez - Sauber - Did not put in a time.
Q3:-
Ricciardo took no part in this session, thus qualifying P10.
Webber and Vettel didn't do as well as might have been expected - only finishing 5th and 6th.
Maldonado did well getting into the top ten and finishing 8th.
However the surprise of the session, I think, was Grosjean, not in that he got into the top ten (after all, he has been in formula 1 before) but in that he finished P3 after having been out of competative F1 for a while.
Full qualifying results:-
1. Hamilton - McLaren
2. Button - McLaren
3. Grosjean - Lotus
4. Schumacher - Mercedes
5. Webber - Red Bull
6. Vettel - Red Bull
7. Rosberg - Mercedes
8. Maldonado - Williams
9. Hulkenberg - Force India
10. Ricciardo - Toro Rosso
11. Vergne - Toro Rosso
12. Alonso - Ferrari
13. Kobayashi - Sauber
14. Senna - Williams
15. Di Resta - Force India
16. Massa - Ferrari
17. Perez - Sauber - Did not put in a time in Q2
18. Raikkonen - Lotus
19. Kovalainen - Caterham
20. Petrov - Caterham
21. Glock - Marussia
22. Pic - Marussia
23. de la Rosa - HRT
24. Karthikeyan - HRT
de la Rosa and Karthikeyan fell foul of the 107% rule and will not paticipate in the race.
Perez needed to change his gearbox, so took a 5 place penalty and starts the race in 22nd, and last, place.