Australia 2012 - Starting grid - Segio Pérez takes a qualifying penalty to drop down the order
Published by Christine
Just one single penalty ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, with Sauber's Sergio Pérez falling prey to a five place grid drop thanks to a post-qualifying gearbox change. Also, both HRT cars will be unable to start the race after they did not manage to run inside the 107% cutoff time in qualifying. We have seen them allowed through before, but after little running so far this weekend, the stewards deemed them not ready to participate in the GP itself.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 1:24.922 | 14 |
| 2 | Jenson Button | Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 1:25.074 | 15 |
| 3 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus F1 Team | 1:25.302 | 21 |
| 4 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:25.336 | 18 |
| 5 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing | 1:25.651 | 17 |
| 6 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing | 1:25.668 | 18 |
| 7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:25.686 | 16 |
| 8 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams F1 Team | 1:25.908 | 20 |
| 9 | Nico Hülkenberg | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:26.451 | 18 |
| 10 | Daniel Ricciardo | Scuderia Toro Rosso | No Time | 16 |
| 11 | Jean-Éric Vergne | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:26.429 | 12 |
| 12 | Fernando Alonso | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:26.494 | 12 |
| 13 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber F1 Team | 1:26.590 | 12 |
| 14 | Bruno Senna | Williams F1 Team | 1:26.663 | 16 |
| 15 | Paul di Resta | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:27.086 | 16 |
| 16 | Felipe Massa | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:27.497 | 16 |
| 17 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus F1 Team | 1:27.758 | 9 |
| 18 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham F1 Team | 1:28.379 | 7 |
| 19 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham F1 Team | 1:29.018 | 8 |
| 20 | Timo Glock | Marussia F1 Team | 1:30.923 | 10 |
| 21 | Charles Pic | Marussia F1 Team | 1:31.670 | 9 |
| 22 | Sergio Pérez | Sauber F1 Team | No Time | 11 |
| DNQ | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT Formula 1 Team | 1:33.495 | 6 |
| DNQ | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT Formula 1 Team | 1:33.643 | 6 |
- 5 places. Sergio Pérez - The Driver did not use the gearbox for five consecutive Events.
