Take a look at the full Australian Grand Prix starting lineup below.
Well, today was strange. Qualifying should have been 1700 until 1800 local time. We had delay, then another delay, then Q1 then a whole series of further delays until finally the whole thing was called off at 1847. We’re lucky the sun went down else we’d probably still be standing there now.
Because there is quite a bit of standing around in these circumstances. Once the car’s ready to go, it’s ready to go and there’s not a lot to do but wait. The activity picks up a few minutes before the session is due to start with tyres arriving, fuel being pumped, instructions relayed. Then the session is postponed, the tyres come off, and everything goes quiet again. The garage has a different rhythm to a normal session and it’s all a bit strange – though in the history of Red Bull Racing this is the first time we’ve started qualifying on Saturday but not finished it.
However, we have had sessions that haven’t started, and sessions that have gone on for ages. The last one was Suzuka in 2010. It was beyond wet in Japan. Officially there was a chance of starting but it never looked likely. Alex Wurz – who was stewarding that weekend – gamely took the FIA safety car out for a recce but when he came back in shaking his head we basically knew nothing was going to happen and that would be it, so we took to building toy boats and sailing them down the pitlane. Like most tracks, at Suzuka the pitlane is slightly below the level of the start-finish straight so in heavy rain you get a little river flowing outside the garages. Hopefully outside the garages. We had to come back and hold the whole session on Sunday morning – and it didn’t seem to have much of an effect as we locked out the front row and stayed that way in the race after a very busy day on Sunday.
Before that we had a qualifying afternoon at Interlagos in 2009 that went on forever. We had rain, heavy rain, torrential rain, thunder, lightning and brilliant sunshine. In the end, a couple of hours after the scheduled finish, Rubens Barrichello pipped Mark to pole by about nine-thousandths of a second (Rubens said he jumped out of the car a couple of times for a ‘comfort break’ waiting for the green light – which may have made the difference). Mark got it back on Sunday though and won the race.
So, it isn’t particularly pleasant to work in – but apocalyptic rain in quali has been lucky for us in the past!
Written By: Infiniti Red Bull Racing
The race is scheduled to air worldwide in just a few hours.
Pos
No
Driver
Team
Q1
Q2
Q3
Laps
1
1
Sebastian Vettel
Red Bull Racing-Renault
1:44.657
1:36.745
1:27.407
27
2
2
Mark Webber
Red Bull Racing-Renault
1:44.472
1:36.524
1:27.827
26
3
10
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
1:45.456
1:36.625
1:28.087
29
4
4
Felipe Massa
Ferrari
1:44.635
1:36.666
1:28.490
23
5
3
Fernando Alonso
Ferrari
1:43.850
1:36.691
1:28.493
26
6
9
Nico Rosberg
Mercedes
1:43.380
1:36.194
1:28.523
28
7
7
Kimi Räikkönen
Lotus-Renault
1:45.545
1:37.517
1:28.738
27
8
8
Romain Grosjean
Lotus-Renault
1:44.284
1:37.641
1:29.013
25
9
14
Paul di Resta
Force India-Mercedes
1:45.601
1:36.901
1:29.305
23
10
5
Jenson Button
McLaren-Mercedes
1:44.688
1:36.644
1:30.357
24
11
11
Nico Hulkenberg
Sauber-Ferrari
1:45.930
1:38.067
19
12
15
Adrian Sutil
Force India-Mercedes
1:47.330
1:38.134
19
13
18
Jean-Eric Vergne
STR-Ferrari
1:44.871
1:38.778
19
14
19
Daniel Ricciardo
STR-Ferrari
1:46.450
1:39.042
20
15
6
Sergio Perez
McLaren-Mercedes
1:44.300
1:39.900
18
16
17
Valtteri Bottas
Williams-Renault
1:47.328
1:40.290
19
17
16
Pastor Maldonado
Williams-Renault
1:47.614
11
18
12
Esteban Gutierrez
Sauber-Ferrari
1:47.776
10
19
22
Jules Bianchi
Marussia-Cosworth
1:48.147
11
20
23
Max Chilton
Marussia-Cosworth
1:48.909
11
21
21
Giedo van der Garde
Caterham-Renault
1:49.519
11
22
20
Charles Pic
Caterham-Renault
1:50.626
10
Sebastian Vettel & Mark Webber Attempt To Sticker Their Own Car