Red Bull confirm Melbourne pace
Both Red Bull cars were again right up there, with both drivers easily running in or close to the top five all the way through qualifying. The end result on tomorrow's grid is however somewhat distorted as Sebastian Vettel will have to start from 13th due to a penalty.
David Coulthard's commentary: "Friday seems to have been misleading in terms of the Brawn performance. I expect they were running a bit more fuel, so not to show their hand. Toyota has built on their strong testing form and Melbourne. Unfortunately for Sebastian, his ten-place penalty drops him to 13th and I think Mark might be slightly disappointed with seventh, but let's what to see what the fuel loads are. Williams may have fuelled short and seventh is still a solid start position. The big shock was Ferrari and Massa going out in Q3 and the first KERS cars are ninth and tenth! Providing Sebastian can keep out of trouble in the first corner, I expect he can work his way towards points, although if other cars don't have problems it might be more difficult. For Mark, he's starting in a points-position and has good starting performance. I think he's got the pace on Rosberg, but it all depends on fuel loads." On getting a grid penalty… "Of course it's frustrating, but race drivers are very good at moving on - they crash a car and they're over it, they get a penalty and they're over it. I don't think we're conditioned to carry that baggage, as it gets in the way of delivering a good lap time."
Sebastian Vettel, Car 15, Position 3rd (Seb will take a ten place penalty): "I have the penalty and there's nothing I can do about that. The secret is just to focus on what I'm here to do and I'm here to race, so that's what we do. Of course it's a shame to see the car performing at a good level in Q1, Q2 and Q3 and know that we have a plus ten tomorrow; we were up in the top five throughout. It will be a very tough day tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to it and nothing is impossible. I'm hoping for some rain, as that can mix things up quite a lot, but let's see."
Mark Webber, Car 14, Position 7th: "Qualifying's tight! That was quite an enjoyable session. It would be nice to have a bit more of a cushion between us and the other cars, but that's not what it's about at the moment and seventh is the best I could do. With the strategy we're on, we'll see how we go tomorrow."
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "A strong team qualifying performance today. Both Mark and Sebastian are looking quick, but we're just too far behind the double-decker diffusers at the moment. Unfortunately, Sebastian has his ten-place penalty to take, but hopefully he can have a bit of luck tomorrow."
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer Track Support: "A nice qualifying. The performance of the car is good and I think we will be in 5th and 13th on the grid tomorrow with the penalty. We have new engines here and with the quality of our engine and the way the RB5 is performing, I think we have everything under control for tomorrow. It's a tough race for the engine here, but it's even tougher for the driver."
Practice 3
Mark Webber: P2, Best Time: 1:36.048, Laps: 13
Sebastian Vettel, P6, Best Time: 1:36.194, Laps: 14
