Vettel grabs the pole for the season opener in Australia followed by Webber and Hamilton
The qualifying sessions of Q2 & Q3 took place on Sunday morning as Saturday session was distrupted by rain in Melbourne. The session started with intermediate tyres because of damp track due to early morning showers.
As the track started to drive towards Q3, drivers made a final shootout for the pole and it was World Champion Sebastian Vettel who grabbed the pole from team mate Mark Webber. Hamilton made a terrific P3 with his new Mercedes while team mate Rosberg managed P6. The Ferraris of Massa and Alonso were sandwiched by the Mercedes in P4 and P5. Raikkonen and Grosjean were P7 & P8 ahead of Paul Di Resta of Force India in P9 and McLaren’s Jenson Button on P10.
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing–Renault | 1:44.657 | 1:36.745 | 1:27.407 | 27 |
| 2 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing–Renault | 1:44.472 | 1:36.524 | 1:27.827 | 26 |
| 3 | 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:45.456 | 1:36.625 | 1:28.087 | 29 |
| 4 | 4 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:44.635 | 1:36.666 | 1:28.490 | 23 |
| 5 | 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:43.850 | 1:36.691 | 1:28.493 | 26 |
| 6 | 9 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:43.380 | 1:36.194 | 1:28.523 | 28 |
| 7 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus–Renault | 1:45.545 | 1:37.517 | 1:28.738 | 27 |
| 8 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus–Renault | 1:44.284 | 1:37.641 | 1:29.013 | 25 |
| 9 | 14 | Paul di Resta | Force India–Mercedes | 1:45.601 | 1:36.901 | 1:29.305 | 23 |
| 10 | 5 | Jenson Button | McLaren–Mercedes | 1:44.688 | 1:36.644 | 1:30.357 | 24 |
| 11 | 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber–Ferrari | 1:45.930 | 1:38.067 | 19 | |
| 12 | 15 | Adrian Sutil | Force India–Mercedes | 1:47.330 | 1:38.134 | 19 | |
| 13 | 18 | Jean–Eric Vergne | STR–Ferrari | 1:44.871 | 1:38.778 | 19 | |
| 14 | 19 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR–Ferrari | 1:46.450 | 1:39.042 | 20 | |
| 15 | 6 | Sergio Perez | McLaren–Mercedes | 1:44.300 | 1:39.900 | 18 | |
| 16 | 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams–Renault | 1:47.328 | 1:40.290 | 19 | |
| 17 | 16 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams–Renault | 1:47.614 | 11 | ||
| 18 | 12 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber–Ferrari | 1:47.776 | 10 | ||
| 19 | 22 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia–Cosworth | 1:48.147 | 11 | ||
| 20 | 23 | Max Chilton | Marussia–Cosworth | 1:48.909 | 11 | ||
| 21 | 21 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham–Renault | 1:49.519 | 11 | ||
| 22 | 20 | Charles Pic | Caterham–Renault | 1:50.626 | 10 | ||
| Q1 107% Time | 1:50.616 |