Australia Grand Prix: Qualifying Postponed

| Source: autosport.com | lotusf1team.com |

 

Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix will be postponed until 11am local time on Sunday morning due to heavy rain showers in Melbourne.

A delayed Q1 managed to take place, but the start of Q2 was repeatedly put back due to the weather conditions. The decision to postpone the rest of the session was finally taken nearly two hours after qualifying had begun.

The situation was complicated by further showers being forecast, so that even if the track improved, the likelihood was that the rain would immediately return. Looming sunset added a further pressure, with little daylight left to fit in Q2 and Q3.

Pos Driver                Team                    Time        Gap   
 1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m43.380s
 2. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m43.850s + 0.470s
 3. Romain Grosjean       Lotus Renault           1m44.284s + 0.904s
 4. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes        1m44.300s + 0.920s
 5. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m44.472s + 1.092s
 6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m44.635s + 1.255s
 7. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m44.657s + 1.277s
 8. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m44.688s + 1.308s
 9. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m44.871s + 1.491s
10. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                1m45.456s + 2.076s
11. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault           1m45.545s + 2.165s
12. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m45.601s + 2.221s
13. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari          1m45.930s + 2.550s
14. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m46.450s + 3.070s
15. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault        1m47.328s + 3.948s
16. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1m47.330s + 3.950s
17. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        1m47.614s + 4.234s
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari          1m47.776s + 4.396s
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth       1m48.147s + 4.767s
20. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth       1m48.909s + 5.529s
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault        1m49.519s + 6.139s
22. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault        1m50.626s + 7.246s

Raikkonen disappointed to miss out on lie-in

The inclement conditions have caused all manner of inconvenience here in Melbourne; a delay to qualifying, cancelled media sessions, endless track sweeping… for Kimi however, there have been far more pressing repercussions…

Q: How was the interrupted qualifying session today?

KR: It wasn’t easy with the traffic, people going off and the yellow flags but we went through to the second qualifying session tomorrow so it’s not all bad.

Q: You’ve now sampled the E21 in the wet; was it to your liking?

KR: The car doesn’t feel too bad in the wet – it’s an improvement on where we were last year for sure – but today the challenge was finding some clear space on track so we didn’t get to really push.

Q: Does finishing qualifying then having the race on the same day make anything different for you?

KR: The session being delayed until tomorrow was a shame but it’s the same for everyone. It’s just normal once it starts and hopefully we get through to Q3. I’d prefer to be having a lie-in tomorrow morning as it’s a late race, but you have to qualify and being out in the car will soon wake me up.