Fernando Alonso on Saturday shed no light on suggestions he might be
able to challenge the Red Bulls for victory at Albert Park.
As in Bahrain two weeks ago, the Ferrari driver has qualified third, but the
cars ahead of him on the Melbourne grid are both on-form Red Bulls led by
back-to-back pole sitter Sebastian Vettel.
Asked if Ferrari's race pace might give him the edge on Sunday evening, the
Spaniard answered: "No idea", but he did admit that beating the Renault powered
cars "was a difficult thing to do here".
Local hero Webber, 33, was visibly disappointed with second on the grid, as
he crassly likened the eight-hundredth gap to his young German teammate as a
"bee's d**k".
After his brush with the police on Friday night, Lewis Hamilton was half a
second slower than his McLaren teammate and missed the cut for the top ten.
His team boss Martin Whitmarsh told the BBC that the 'hoon' story had been
"blown out of proportion" by the media, admitting that Hamilton "will be
disappointed with his performance".
With a better showing than in Bahrain was Michael Schumacher, who despite still trailing his teammate Nico Rosberg said Melbourne has been "a little bit more fun" than his comeback event.
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 1:24.774 | 1:24.096 | 1:23.919 | 19 |
| 2 | 6 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 1:25.286 | 1:24.276 | 1:24.035 | 20 |
| 3 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:25.082 | 1:24.335 | 1:24.111 | 22 |
| 4 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:24.897 | 1:24.531 | 1:24.675 | 19 |
| 5 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:25.548 | 1:25.010 | 1:24.837 | 24 |
| 6 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes Benz GP Ltd | 1:24.788 | 1:24.788 | 1:24.884 | 26 |
| 7 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes Benz GP Ltd | 1:25.351 | 1:24.871 | 1:24.927 | 24 |
| 8 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1:25.702 | 1:25.085 | 1:25.217 | 20 |
| 9 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1:25.588 | 1:25.122 | 1:25.372 | 23 |
| 10 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:25.504 | 1:25.046 | 1:26.036 | 24 |
| 11 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:25.046 | 1:25.184 | 13 | |
| 12 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 1:26.061 | 1:25.638 | 17 | |
| 13 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1:26.170 | 1:25.743 | 19 | |
| 14 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 1:26.089 | 1:25.747 | 15 | |
| 15 | 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1:25.866 | 1:25.748 | 17 | |
| 16 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 1:26.251 | 1:25.777 | 16 | |
| 17 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR-Ferrari | 1:26.095 | 1:26.089 | 16 | |
| 18 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1:26.471 | 10 | ||
| 19 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1:28.797 | 9 | ||
| 20 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1:29.111 | 8 | ||
| 21 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:29.592 | 8 | ||
| 22 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:30.185 | 8 | ||
| 23 | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1:30.526 | 10 | ||
| 24 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 1:30.613 | 10 |
