Australian Formula One Grand Prix: Who Qualifies for Tomorrow's Race?

There were a few mild surprises in the three qualifying sessions at Albert Park, sorting out the grid positions. 

The teams are coping with unknown quantities in the new, movable wings, the new Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems, the new Perelli tires, and the absence of double diffusers.  Some drivers had expressed distress with the extremely busy steering wheels, including a multitude of buttons and switches that are new and complex.

Rubens Barichello, the most experienced driver in Formula One with more than 300 starts to his name, caught himself out in Q2.  It seemed that he flattened his rear wing and the abrupt release of down-force spun him off the track and out of the competition for the top-ten grid positions. 

Neither of the Hispania cars were able to achieve a time within 107 percent of the pole time, therefore will not be on the grid at Albert Park this year.  In fact, the Hispania cars appeared to be shedding body and aerodynamic parts during their short forays onto the track.

In the end, the reigning world champion driver, 23-year-old Sebastien Vettel nailed the pole position with a stunning lap, just as he did at the same Melbourne track last season.  He'll share the front row with McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, while Vettel's Red Bull teammate, Mark Webber clinched the third spot. Hamilton's McLaren teammate Jenson Button will fill the second row.

Surprisingly, seven-time world driving champion, Michael Schumacher did not make it out of Q2 with his Mercedes team car, while his young teammate, Nico Rosberg, son of former champion driver Keke Rosberg, captured eighth place for the start of the race...and the season.

Here are the rest of the qualifying positions:

2011 Australian GP Qualifying  Results
Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:25.296	1:24.090	1:23.529	16
2	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.384	1:24.595	1:24.307	19
3	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:25.900	1:24.658	1:24.395	15
4	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.886	1:24.957	1:24.779	18
5	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:25.707	1:25.242	1:24.974	19
6	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:25.543	1:25.582	1:25.247	18
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1:25.856	1:25.606	1:25.421	17
8	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:26.031	1:25.611	1:25.599	18
9	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:25.717	1:25.405	1:25.626	17
10	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:26.232	1:25.882	1:27.066	15
11	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1:25.962	1:25.971		13
12	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	1:26.620	1:26.103		11
13	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:25.812	1:26.108		9
14	15	Paul Di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:27.222	1:26.739		16
15	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:26.298	1:26.768		17
16	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:26.245	1:31.407		15
17	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:26.270			12
18	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1:27.239			10
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1:29.254			10
20	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:29.342			12
21	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:29.858			10
22	25	Jerome dAmbrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:30.822			8
23	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1:32.978			11
24	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1:34.293			11
Liuzzi and Karthikeyan failed to meet the Q1 107 percent qualifying time.