At the inaugural race of every Formula 1 season you never really know where each team stands in terms of performance. Sure, there are the favorites, the also-runs, the back markers and oftentimes, the wild cards.
Well, the qualifying race of the Australian Grand Prix that kicked off this year’s F1 season certainly had all of the above. But not necessarily in the way most seasoned F1 fans might have expected.
Lewis Hamilton claimed the 20th pole position of his career and Jenson Button lined up right beside him, making it an all-McLaren front row. Not too surprising, as despite the fact that Sebastian Vettel took most pole positions last year, the McLarens had proved to be very fast during testing.
“It’s an incredible feeling to get off to such a good start”, said Hamilton. His team-mate Button added, “Obviously, this is only the beginning, but I think we have done a good job this winter and we have proved that today.”
For the rest of the official qualifying session, it’s hard to say which was the biggest surprise.
Romain Grosjean, who many mistake as a rookie, has in fact raced in F1 with Renault, albeit his last event was in 2009. Nevertheless, he brought Lotus to third position, justifying many like Red Bull Racing’s Christian Horner who believe that Lotus could be this year’s outsider.
Unfortunately, Horner’s own drivers were clearly off the pace compared to the McLarens. Mark Webber recorded the fifth fastest lap, despite facing a KERS malfunction, while reigning champion Sebastian Vetell was sixth.
Michael Schumacher posted his best qualifying result since his 2011 return to Formula 1 by claiming fourth place. The seven-time world champion was happy with the performance of the Mercedes W03: “Our performance is a huge step forward, considering where we were in qualifying here last year”, said the German referring to his 2011 start from 11th place.
If Ferrari thought that last year’s performance was a fluke and 2012 will signal a return to form, they might have to reconsider. Fernando Alonso spun on Q2 and did not make it to Q3! So he will start from 12th place, while Felipe Massa was a second slower than his teammate and ended up 17th.
Apparently, Scuderia’s technical director Pat Fry was simply being candid when he said that the Ferrari’s performance is way off the pace setters.
Team principal Stefano Domenicali commented: “I understand that at the moment our fans are disappointed but I would urge them to be cautious before making any definitive judgment. We have a lot of work to do and our engineers are well aware of that, as indeed they were before even leaving for Melbourne.”
With the two HRT’s being disqualified for failing, for the second year in a row in Melbourne to achieve a lap time within 107 percent of pole position, as mandated by the rules, 22 drivers will start tomorrow’s race.
