Lewis Hamilton takes first pole position of 2012 in Melbourne - McLaren make a great start to 2012 with a 1-2 in qualifying
Published by Christine
Welcome to F1Minute - Lewis Hamilton takes first pole position of 2012 in Melbourne.
The first qualifying session of the season was something of a surprise all round, as the two top-running cars without the stepped nose ended up first and second. Lewis Hamilton led the way with teammate Jenson Button close behind.
Lotus driver Romain Grosjean secured an unexpected third place, giving the team some good news. Unfortunately, Kimi Räikkönen failed to impress on his comeback quali, and could only do enough for 18th place - falling out of the session at the first hurdle.
Behind him, two Caterham’s who are closing the gap slowly but surely, two Marussia’s and two HRT cars who did not manage to stay inside the 107% cutoff time.
Both Ferrari drivers dropped out in Q2, with Felipe Massa 16th and Fernando Alonso beaching his car for 12th. The Toro Rosso boys did well, 11th for Jean-Éric Vergne, whilst Daniel Ricciardo snuck into the top ten.
Defending champion Sebastian Vettel could only pick up sixth place, with teammate Mark Webber ahead of him in 5th.
