F1: Albert Park Qualifying

With what has seemed like an eternity, Formula One has finally come back. And Mother Nature had a wonderful welcome in mind. Heavy rain fell prior to the start of the session – the storms were severe enough to knock out TV coverage for a time – and ensured the first part of qualifying was delayed on three occasions, until finally getting underway half an hour late.

Q1 and Rosberg emerged as the fastest man on track despite all the accidents scattered about. Massa, Gutierrez, Maldonado, van der Garde and Pic were each involved in their own accidents, ending their qualifying session early.

Caterham’s Charles Pic set a time in Q1 outside the 107% mark but with the torrential rain, it is sure that the steward’s will allow him to race on Sunday.

After a somewhat long break between Q1 and Q2, the drivers and cars reemerged on track. You’ve seen qualifying stopped before it’s even started but to have qualifying run on two different days is something completely different.

Even with this break, the drivers were still fighting the wet track and the slippery white lines. With spray coming off the tyres, most of the drivers took to the track. With rain predicted in the short term forecast, everyone wanted to set a quick lap.

Q2 seemed to be more like a test run. For McLaren at least. Many of the teams and drivers were trying to come to a healthy understanding of tyres versus track. Not wanting to disappoint the fans in the season opener and wanting their new teams to do their best, teams seemed to be changing tyres every few laps or so. But once the track started drying out within the last few precious minutes of Q2, the times started to drop.

Q3 and the first Top Ten Shoot out of 2013 season began.

It seemed like qualifying was set to take shape as previous years. Drivers waiting for the very last second to head out on track and teams conserving tyres as much as possible. Seven minutes passed and there really was not much action on track. Three and a half minutes left and the drivers all pitted for soft tyres. The track had really dried out and each of the ten drivers were set to race for the podium.

Less than a minute left and that is when the action really began. With every driver that crossed the chequered flag, the pole seemed to pass from hand to hand. The moment that Red Bull’s Vettel crossed the start/stop line with a single second left, everyone knew that qualifying was over. The track was dry and the triple World Champion was set and went on to take the very first pole position in the 2013 F1 season.

Sebastian Vettel	P1
Mark Webber	P2
Lewis Hamilton	P3
Felipe Massa	P4
Fernando Alonso	P5
Nico Rosberg	P6
Kimi Räikkönen	P7
Romain Grosjean	P8
Paul di Resta	P9
Jenson Button	P10
Nico Hulkenberg	P11
Adrian Sutil	P12
Jean-Éric Vergne	P13
Daniel Ricciardo	P14
Sergio Perez	P15
Valtteri Bottas	P16
Pastor Maldonado	P17
Esteban Gutiérrez	P18
Jules Bianchi	P19
Max Chilton	P20
Giedo van der Garde	P21
Charles Pic	P22