Sebastian Vettel takes provisional pole in first qualifying session of Australian Grand Prix
Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel took the provisional pole in the first qualifying session of the inaugural Australian Grand Prix of the 2011 Formula 1 season at the Albert Park in Melbourne on Saturday.
Vettel was the first of the top drivers to put in a lap time and he was the quickest straightaway. His teammate Mark Webber gave him some tough time, as he did a better lap than the German.
However, the reigning champion got better and better with time and eventually ended on top of the time sheets.
McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was also quick and he did a good job to finish second. At one stage, the British driver was quicker than both the Red Bull drivers, but he was outpaced by Vettel in the end.
The surprise of the first qualifying session came from Lotus Renault GP driver Vitaly Petrov, who set the third fastest time of the session. The Russian was the first driver to set a lap time on Saturday and remained on top until the top teams came out.
Fernando Alonso was also quick, as he finished fourth in the session. However, the biggest surprise came from the Sauber team, as their drivers Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez finished fifth and sixth respectively. The team showed some promise during the
pre-season testing and their performance in Q1 was more than they could have expected.
Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP finished seventh behind both the Saubers. The German will be looking to improve his lap times during the remaining two sessions of qualifying. However, the good thing for Rosberg was that he was quicker than his teammate Michael
Schumacher.
Jenson Button, Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher rounded off the top ten of the first qualifying session. All three drivers will look to improve on their lap times as the session progresses.
Alonso’s teammate Felipe Massa struggled a lot during the session. However, the Brazilian driver managed to put things together on his final lap of the session, clocking the 11th fastest time.
Sebastian Buemi, Adrian Sutil, Rubens Barrichello, Pastor Maldonado, Jamie Alguersuari and Paul di Resta completed the top 17 who will go into the second session of qualifying.
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