Qualifying: No stopping F1's reigning Champ

There was just no stopping F1's reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel as the German picked up where he left off last season, claiming pole in Australia

Vettel took pole position at Albert Park in a dominant display that left the other teams and his team-mate trailing. McLaren were the best of the rest with a strong performance from Lewis Hamilton who finished P2 ahead of Mark Webber and Jenson Button.

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa managed P5 and P8 for Ferrari, but Michael Schumacher failed to make Q3 while team-mate Nico Rosberg took P7. Performance of the day came from Vitaly Petrov who put his Renault into P6.

Times
01. Sebastian Vettel, Germany, Red Bull, 1:23.529
2. Lewis Hamilton, Britain, McLaren, 1:24.307
3. Mark Webber, Australia, Red Bull, 1:24.395
4. Jenson Button, Britain, McLaren, 1:24.799
5. Fernando Alonso, Spain, Ferrari, 1:24.974
6. Vitaly Petrov, Russia, Renault, 1:25.247
7. Nico Rosberg, Germany, Mercedes, 1:25.421
8. Felipe Massa, Brazil, Ferrari, 1:25.599
9. Kamui Kobayashi, Japan, Sauber, 1:25.626
10. Sebastien Buemi, Switzerland, Toro Rosso, 1:27.066

Eliminated after second session
11. Michael Schumacher, Germany, Mercedes, 1:25.971
12. Jaime Alguersuari, Spain, Toro Rosso, 1:26.103
13. Sergio Perez, Mexico, Sauber, 1:26.108
14. Paul Di Resta, Britain, Force India, 1:26.739
15. Pastor Maldonado, Venezuela, Williams, 1:26.768
16. Adrian Sutil, Germany, Force India, 1:31.407
17. Rubens Barrichello, Brazil, Williams, no time set

Eliminated after first session
18. Nick Heidfeld, Germany, Renault, 1:27.239
19. Heikki Kovalainen, Finland, Lotus, 1:29.254
20. Jarno Trulli, Italy, Lotus, 1:29.342
21. Timo Glock, Germany, Virgin, 1:29.858
22. Jerome d'Ambrosio, Belgium, Virgin, 1:30.822
23. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Italy, Hispania, 1:32.978
24. Narain Karthikeyan, India, Hispania, 1:34.293

Source: Planet-F1