The weather tried to spoil the opening to the 2013 Formula 1 season. Qualifying was postponed on Saturday after just one session and moved to Sunday morning March 17th after mother nature unleashed a torrential downpour onto Albert Park. Last time qualifying was postponed to Sunday was at Suzuka in 2010.
This, however, did not bother team RedBull as Sebastian Vettel got the upper hand in third and last qualifying session. Tire selection and strategy was the name of the game as teams kept switching from intermediate wets to dry super softs. Track conditions kept improving, and when the mist settled – the RedBull star was four tenths ahead of teammate Mark Webber, who took second position. Lewis Hamilton showed an impressive result on his first outing for team Mercedes as he improved to third qualifying spot. Still Hamilton was six tenth behind the pole setter. Next were the boys from Ferrari. Felipe Massa sneaked into fourth just 0.003 seconds ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso. Nico Rosberg brought the second Mercedes into sixth, and Raikkonen and Grosjean of Lotus were right behind. It’s also worth to note that Jenson Button’s McLaren showed impressive pace on intermediate wet tires, but could not repeat in drier condition and ended up tenth on the grid (nearly three seconds behind).
The official race time is 5:00pm Melbourne time and is coming up fast. Sebastian Vettel once again looks unstoppable this weekend, but we can be sure that Webber will fight for his first home win. We cannot discount Hamilton, Massa, or Alonso – who are all able to make a fast launch.
2013 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Results (Top 10):
| Sebastian Vettel | 1.27.407 |
| Mark Webber | 1.27.827 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 1.28.087 |
| Felipe Massa | 1.28.490 |
| Fernando Alonso | 1.28.493 |
| Nico Rosberg | 1.28.523 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 1.28.738 |
| Romain Grosjean | 1.29.013 |
| Paul di Resta | 1.29.305 |
| Jenson Button | 1.30.357 |
Andre Smirnov is a life-long automotive enthusiast, software engineer, writer, and reporter. He has been writing and reporting at TFLcar since 2011. When not working or spending time with the family – you can find him tinkering in the garage or scouring the internet and other media for various automotive, mechanical, and computer related information.
