| Row 1 | 1. Lewis Hamilton 1’26.327 Mercedes | |
| 2. Nico Rosberg 1’26.921 Mercedes | ||
| Row 2 | 3. Felipe Massa 1’27.718 Williams | |
| 4. Sebastian Vettel 1’27.757 Ferrari | ||
| Row 3 | 5. Kimi Raikkonen 1’27.790 Ferrari | |
| 6. Daniel Ricciardo 1’28.329 Red Bull | ||
| Row 4 | 7. Carlos Sainz Jnr 1’28.510 Toro Rosso | |
| 8. Romain Grosjean 1’28.560 Lotus | ||
| Row 5 | 9. Pastor Maldonado 1’29.480 Lotus | |
| 10. Felipe Nasr 1’28.800 Sauber | ||
| Row 6 | 11. Max Verstappen 1’28.868 Toro Rosso | |
| 12. Daniil Kvyat 1’29.070 Red Bull | ||
| Row 7 | 13. Nico Hulkenberg 1’29.208 Force India | |
| 14. Sergio Perez 1’29.209 Force India | ||
| Row 8 | 15. Marcus Ericsson 1’31.376 Sauber | |
| 16. Jenson Button 1’31.422 McLaren | ||
| Row 9 | 17. Kevin Magnussen 1’32.037 McLaren |
NB. Valtteri Bottas qualified sixth but will not start the race due to a back injury.
No time:
Will Stevens, Manor
Roberto Merhi, Manor
2015 Australian Grand Prix
- Sponsor Watch: 2015 Australian and Malaysian GP
- Nasr wins Driver of the Weekend poll on debut
- F1 can only get better after lifeless Melbourne opener
- 2015 Australian Grand Prix team radio highlights
- 2015 Australian Grand Prix fans’ video gallery
Theo Parkinson (@theo-hrp)
14th March 2015, 7:04
What a lap!
Blackmamba (@blackmamba)
14th March 2015, 7:09
39 poles
John Mwesigwa (@sigwa)
14th March 2015, 8:56
he is going to catch vettel”s pole record this season
matt90 (@matt90)
14th March 2015, 14:12
I’d be surprised if he doesn’t at least match Senna’s victory tally (while surpassing Vettel’s) too.
Srodhar
14th March 2015, 7:05
Good show by Ferrari
Evenly matched teammates. If I were a betting man would put my money on Ferrari for a podium likely RAI. Itvwull be a battle of attrition and I expect ROS to not likely finish the race. Exciting battle ahead.
Blackmamba (@blackmamba)
14th March 2015, 7:13
Sainz 1 – 0 vestappen
Vettel 1 – 0 Raikkonnen
Ricciardo 1 – 0 Kyviat
Sridhar
14th March 2015, 7:21
Wait for race results !
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
14th March 2015, 7:21
Why would Rosberg not finish the race? The Merc has run so smooth all pre-season…
But Rosberg crashing out Lewis and Vettel winning his first race in a Ferrari followed by Kimi and Massa would be great…
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
14th March 2015, 7:26
I think that both Mercs and Ferraris taking each other out would be even better!
Mashiat
14th March 2015, 7:07
This season is going to be very interesting indeed! Can’t wait for McLaren vs. Manor in Malaysia! Will be the battle of the season!
Diego (@ironcito)
14th March 2015, 7:10
You broke my sarcasm detector!
stefano (@alfa145)
14th March 2015, 17:00
it’s not that much sarcastic afterall…
karCrashe (@karcrashe)
14th March 2015, 7:20
You made my day
Fun (@functor)
14th March 2015, 10:25
And Manor with the livery McLaren was suppose to change – Red-White
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
14th March 2015, 16:42
+1
Mashiat
14th March 2015, 7:08
Confirmed: Hamilton will win the championship at least 3 races before the end.
iAltair (@)
14th March 2015, 7:16
Its just the first qualifying. What a conclusion.
Kgn11
14th March 2015, 7:46
And people have been saying it before the season started, so what difference does qualifying makes?
Colossal Squid (@colossal-squid)
14th March 2015, 12:36
Yep. I had Mexico as the race he seals his 3rd Championship but being brutally honest they might as well give it to Hamilton now. No way Rosberg has the beating of him over a season.
I’m growing bored of all this domination. We haven’t had two different teams/drivers battling for the championship since 2012. At least I’ll hopefully have a good scrap between Williams and Ferrari to entertain myself with this year.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
14th March 2015, 7:09
Well, Renault did a good job…
Patrick (@paeschli)
14th March 2015, 7:29
Well. Last year, it was still possible to believe that the engine was crap and the chassis was good but this year, both seem crap.
Seriously, the Toro Rosso seems on par with the Red Bull.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
14th March 2015, 7:09
Did Rosberg make a big mistake in sector 1? He lost 6 tenths, yet matched Lewis over the rest of the lap.
Nonetheless, quite a surprising qualifying. Hamilton destroys Rosberg. Raikkonen matches Vettel. McLaren and Red Bull far worse than expected.
Wrighty88 (@wrighty88)
14th March 2015, 7:12
No, Lewis was consistently quicker in the first sector throughout qualifying. No doubt Nico will be up all night on his mac trying to make sense of it all.
HUHHII (@huhhii)
14th March 2015, 7:18
How Räikkönen matching Vettel counts as a surprise?
Kingshark (@kingshark)
14th March 2015, 7:24
@huhhii
Vettel had the advantage all weekend long in qualifying mode. Kimi’s final lap was quite a surprise. With that being said, I expect the pair to be evenly matched on race pace.
Sri Harsha (@harsha)
14th March 2015, 7:35
@huhhii
Kimi last lap was on New set and Vettel was on Used set mentioned by Sky if Vettel was on fresh set i expect the 1.4 sec gap to P1 reduce atleast by a tenth
HUHHII (@huhhii)
14th March 2015, 7:39
But why would Ferrari give used option tires for VET? Sound slightly weird.
Edgar
14th March 2015, 7:45
Vettel was on new softs too.
McL88AsAp (@deongunner)
14th March 2015, 7:47
@huhhii Tactical Interests, I heard he save it for Sunday.
Kgn11
14th March 2015, 7:49
@HUHHII…
Because he didn’t have new ones left. He used one set in Q1 and he used his last on his first Q3 lap.
Sri Harsha (@harsha)
14th March 2015, 7:50
They said to save a set of tires for Sunday. Might be for 2nd stop
larry onyekwere
14th March 2015, 7:10
from LH Q3 stonking lap time, i am 100% certain that the reason why he hasnt signed a new contract by now must be his obvious demands that his telemetry shouldnt be shared with his team mate. he is in another world
Marc Thielke (@motor)
14th March 2015, 7:35
The Sky tv side by side Q3 lap in-car showed lewis in 4th gear to ros in 3rd in the same corner; don’t know about Lewis being ‘in another world’ but he has some craft above Rosberg in his setup. I don’t blame him for wanting to keep his information private.
Danton Mackhnó Araújo Serpa (@danton205)
14th March 2015, 7:10
Dear Lewis, why did you improve your already great lap at the end of Q3? My predicition was a 1:26.400.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
14th March 2015, 7:16
@danton205 Isn’t it telling that that is what you care about instead of the actual pole sitter? I was more focused on P1 being around my predicted time rather than the person who was on pole as I already knew that…
Patrick (@paeschli)
14th March 2015, 7:32
I had predicted a 1’26.412, but I had Rosberg on pole.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
14th March 2015, 7:37
@paeschli Me too, 1:26.699 though. Didn’t expect them to find that much.
Colossal Squid (@colossal-squid)
14th March 2015, 12:38
I had Lewis at 1:23.325…why couldn’t he have been 2 hundredths faster! ;)
Strontium (@strontium)
14th March 2015, 7:11
Oh dear oh dear. McLaren are backmarkers. I feel so sorry for Button and Alonso (and Magnussen to a lesser degree). Oh no.
It’s very good to see the Ferraris and Williams right in there, but I can’t help but feel that Alonso made an incredibly bad decision. The Ferrari is looking the best it has been for years, and the McLaren is right at the back. I do feel very sorry for him at the moment.
Strontium (@strontium)
14th March 2015, 7:16
Oh and Felipe Massa once more proves just how good he really is.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
14th March 2015, 7:17
@strontiumI do think Vettel (Bad S1) and Bottas (Last corner) could’ve been ahead… But mistakes are a part of the sport and those who don’t make them earn the positions aswell.
Corrado (@)
14th March 2015, 7:52
+1
Patrick (@paeschli)
14th March 2015, 7:34
I feel bad letting the comment section influence my race predictions. I put Bottas in my top 5 instead of Massa.
72defender (@72defender)
14th March 2015, 7:41
Alonso is this year’s Maldonado.
Corrado (@)
14th March 2015, 8:03
Come on, you’re exaggerating about Ferrari being the best in years… I think you must remember that between 2010 and 2013, the difference between the top team (RBR) and Ferrari wasn’t as big as it is now, in 2015, and they even won races every year. The big disappointment was 2014 indeed. 2015 looks better at the moment, but only that they don’t seem to be like the 3rd-5th team on the grid (depending on the race). But they’re still very far from the top team (at least 1 sec deficit?!) and the way things look so far a victory seems out of reach for 2015 too… unless both Mercedes cars DNF. So, in my opinion, at the moment, Ferrari – performance wise – still is in worse shape than 2010 -2013!
pastaman (@)
14th March 2015, 18:22
They said they wouldn’t be competitive until Europe. Are they in Europe yet?
Danton Mackhnó Araújo Serpa (@danton205)
14th March 2015, 7:11
The time difference between the 2 Saubers is incrediblly high.
Strontium (@strontium)
14th March 2015, 7:15
@danton205 I think we know which one would get the boot if Van der Garde has to race
davros
14th March 2015, 7:30
Yes we do, it would be Nasr because he brings less money to the team:P
Patrick (@paeschli)
14th March 2015, 7:35
Actually, Nasr brings more money than Ericsson.
Joni (@theflyingfinns)
14th March 2015, 7:15
Have to say, counted out Felipe a bit, expected Vettel and Bottas ahead of him. A bit disappointed to see the Finns lose to their teammates, although Kimi only lost .033 and gets the “clean” side of the grid, and Valtteri made a mistake, so hopefully next time the positions are reversed :)
Race will be interesting between Williams & Ferrari, Massa will be hard to overtake with Williams’ straight line speed, so Ferrari’s best chances are the start and pit stops.
Other notes: Shocked with McLaren being last; surprised with Red Bull not being closer to Williams/Ferrari; props to Sainz, Nasr and Lotuses
Can’t wait for tomorrow
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
14th March 2015, 7:19
Massa is a great starter though. I think P3 could be sealed by T3.
Solo (@solo)
11th April 2015, 4:32
I’m more shocked over the 5 second difference more than being last. Even Caterham and Marrusia were about 3-4 second behind last year.
I get it the engine isn’t at full mode because they are worried over reliability but still how low are they running it to be 5 seconds away? Are they like using only 500-600hp?
McL88AsAp (@deongunner)
14th March 2015, 7:18
Looked like Rosberg schooled by Hamilton, anyway his mistake in S3 are quite unusual though, but that’s great Lap from Hamilton.
Also Vettel is better than I expected, I wonder how much will Alonso regret about his decision in joining McLaren.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
14th March 2015, 7:20
@deongunner Well, the guy does have 4 titles, 39 wins, …
Kingshark (@kingshark)
14th March 2015, 7:25
@deongunner
Ferrari are 2nd/3rd best team right now, about 1-1.5 seconds slower than the fastest team. That’s exactly where they were from 2010-2013. Alonso took a gamble, and it hasn’t paid off (yet).
Patrick (@paeschli)
14th March 2015, 7:36
I can’t see Alonso securing a third world title in the future.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
14th March 2015, 7:39
@kingshark 1-1,5s slower than the fastest team? So basically you’re saying Alonso is worth a full second or are you talking about Q only? I do think Alonso is the top driver on the field but the ’12 car wasn’t 1 second slower and neither was the ’10 car…
Oletros (@oletros)
14th March 2015, 7:45
Really? I think we saw different F1 seasons. Because you’re not saying that ALO got more than one second from his car, isn’t?
Kingshark (@kingshark)
14th March 2015, 8:35
@oletros @xtwl
I know, Ferrari was much closer to Red Bull in 2010 and 2012 than they are to Mercedes now. I was just making a point to those who say that all of the sudden Ferrari have became “much better” again. Actually, they aren’t much better right now than they were in 2011 or 2013.
Key (@key75)
14th March 2015, 8:47
Well this is a thing that I wasn’t expecting and you dont’ see very much!
Specially last year…
https://twitter.com/sebvettelnews/status/576664543872487424
Hope they can keep this “united team” atmosphere for some time!
Mayank (@mjf1fan)
14th March 2015, 9:16
The page doesnt exist anymore…. Could you tell what was in that link?
Key (@key75)
14th March 2015, 14:37
@mjfifan https://twitter.com/sebvettelnews/status/576667472142565376 and https://twitter.com/sebvettelnews/status/576690243585253376
This would never happen with Alo/Kimi last year! It’s refreshing, but let’s see the rest of the season.
Philip (@philipgb)
14th March 2015, 14:03
People forever say they want to see the drivers make a difference but I can’t think of a qualifying session where almost all team mates had such large gaps between each other. The lead drivers of each team all produced stonking laps relative to their team mates.
The exception being Vettel and Kimi. Now were they both great laps or both average?
Polo (@polo)
18th March 2015, 13:01
I think it was largely to do with the wind, and how well the drivers could improvise with the unpredictable conditions. There were falling track temperatures and a strong wind that was giving drivers problems into turns 1, 3 and 15.
I found this quote pretty interesting: it also potentially suggests that Mercedes’ huge 1.4s advantage was possible an anomaly and other cars may be (around 0.4s?) closer in the coming races:
Asked how come Mercedes’ superiority had apparently stretched since last year, a senior team member wasn’t convinced that it had. “I think actually a lot of that was just Lewis. The car’s superiority was probably more like how Nico’s lap showed it – maybe around 1sec. Lewis’s was just an amazing lap in those conditions. He’s in the midst of contract negotiations and suddenly you see the difference that calibre of driver can make.”
http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/f1/reports/2015-australian-grand-prix-report/
Polo (@polo)
18th March 2015, 13:08
@philipgb And as for Vettel and Kimi, I think their laps were probably both quite average (relatively speaking): both drivers said that the Ferrari could have been third. Raikkonen made a mistake at turn 3 and lost about 0.3s, and Vettel said that he wasn’t pleased with himself and that “there was more performance to be found”
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/03/14/raikkonen-and-vettel-believe-third-was-possible-for-ferrari/
John
15th March 2015, 3:15
Anyone know where I can locate race simultaion timings from the pratice sessions please?
Been searching far and wide with no luck.