There was a big surprise in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix today: World champion Sebastian Vettel on Red Bull failed to qualify for the 3rd qualifying session and ended up 13th on the grid. His young, new stablemate Daniel Ricciardo fared better in the elimination of grid positions at his home Grand Prix and placed second. The 26-year-old German still "improved" by one place thanks solely to the penalty of Finland's Valtteri Bottas in the Williams. After the race, Vettel said: "It's incredibly difficult this year. One little thing can turn the whole thing around, but if, when and but: It wasn't good enough. We were worse than in free practice, I really struggled with the drivability. There's still a bit of time before tomorrow, we need to understand the reasons now." After the race, team boss Christian Horner spoke of software problems that are said to have caused Vettel's problems.
A pleasing Formula 1 start for all Mercedes fans: Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the first Grand Prix of the year, and his teammate Nico Rosberg made it to third place on the grid, securing an excellent starting position for the Mercedes team for Sunday's race. Surprisingly, the Toro Rosso team, Willimas and especially Kevin Magnussen on McLaren showed up. The Formula 1 rookie from Denmark made it to an excellent 4th place on the grid at the first attempt. Overall, the drivers struggled with the wet conditions. Kimi Räikkönen, among others, "parked" his Ferrari in the "guard rail". Tomorrow's race is likely to be particularly exciting in view of the weather, the change in the rules and the new technical starting position.
2014 Australian Grand Prix, Qualifying
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:44.231
2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:44.548
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:44.595
4 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:45.745
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:45.819
6 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:45.864
7 Nico Hülkenberg Force India 1:46.030
8 Danil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:47.368
9 Felipe Massa Williams 1:48.079
10 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:48.147
11 Jenson Button McLaren 1:44.437
12 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:44.494
13 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:44.668
14 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:45.655
15 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:45.867
16 Sergio Perez Force India 1:47.293
17 Max Chilton Marussia 1:34.293
18 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:34.794
19 Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber 1:35.117
20 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:35.157
21 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:36.993
22 Pastor Maldonado Lotus No time
English 
Deutsch 
Français 
Español 
Italiano