2015 Australian Grand Prix Saturday - Qualifying
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Williams asks Bottas if his brake situation is improving...
Stopwatch
Maldonado does a 1m29.480s to go first for a moment...
Maldonado and Raikkonen set early bests in Q1, then Hamilton breezed through 0.8s faster in that sector alone.
"There's something wrong with the bite of the brakes," says Bottas, who had two lock-ups in three corners.
Bottas starts his opening lap with a wobble in Turn 1, and then sailing past the apex in Turn 3. That lap is ruined already.
Mercedes, Williams, and the Ferrari of Vettel start Q3 on new softs. Raikkonen is on used tyres.
Lawrence Barretto: "The last time Jenson Button qualified as low as 17th was the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix when his McLaren team got caught out by the wet weather."
So it's Hamilton vs Rosberg for pole, Ferrari vs Williams for rows two and three, then Lotus/Ricciardo/Sainz for rows four and five.
While Mercedes is about a second clear up front, the Ferraris and Williams were all covered by just 0.153s in Q2.
Edd Straw: "Q2 confirms that, as expected, the battle for the minor points positions will be very tight. Gap from Grosjean in seventh down to Perez in 15th was just six-tenths."
Green flag
Q3 begins - 12 minutes of pole fight ahead.
If you're just joining us, you might not be too surprised to learn that you've missed McLaren and Manor.
Button and Magnussen will start on the back row in 17th and 18th, having been some way off reaching Q2, and Manor failed to run at all so will not be participating this weekend.
Button and Magnussen will start on the back row in 17th and 18th, having been some way off reaching Q2, and Manor failed to run at all so will not be participating this weekend.
After all Sauber's pain this week, great stuff from Nasr to get within 0.076s of a Q3 place.
Into Q3:
1 Hamilton
2 Rosberg
3 Vettel
4 Bottas
5 Raikkonen
6 Massa
7 Grosjean
8 Sainz
9 Ricciardo
10 Maldonado
1 Hamilton
2 Rosberg
3 Vettel
4 Bottas
5 Raikkonen
6 Massa
7 Grosjean
8 Sainz
9 Ricciardo
10 Maldonado
Red Bull, Australian GP 2015
Eliminated:
11 Nasr
12 Verstappen
13 Kvyat
14 Hulkenberg
15 Perez
11 Nasr
12 Verstappen
13 Kvyat
14 Hulkenberg
15 Perez
That was a wild 20 seconds on the timing screens as everyone around 10th place improved in rapid succession. Here's how it ended up...
"I had a big moment out of Turn 5," says Verstappen, who misses the cut while team-mate Sainz is through.
Grosjean was briefly out but surges back in as he completes his lap, and all that shuffles Verstappen and Kvyat out of Q3 too.
Incredible effort from Nasr - he puts Sauber ninth... but only for a few moments before he's nudged out of the top 10 again.
Vettel didn't bother with a lap in the end.
Maldonado leaps to seventh, he's safe.
Kvyat and Maldonado, currently 13th and 15th, are the men to watch.
Perez improves but only reaches 12th behind Hulkenberg. Both Force Indias are out.
Ricciardo does still improve, going up to sixth.
P10 is currently a 1m29.086s (Verstappen). Third-placed Vettel (1m27.742s) doesn't feel safe though - so only Mercedes stay in the garage.
Ricciardo is quicker than before in sector one, but not in the middle of the lap.
Raikkonen sets a new overall best in sector one.
Maldonado is among those now out as he tries a last-gasp effort to reach the top 10.
Massa is told to "make a gap - we need a traffic-free lap here".
Ricciardo begins his lap. He's ninth right now, 0.146s clear of 11th.
Lawrence Barretto: "Lewis Hamilton's leading time of 1m26.894s on the soft tyres is half-a-second quicker than Sebastian Vettel's pole lap in 2013 in the Red Bull when Formula 1 was using V8 engines."
Twitter
Mercedes on Twitter: "@LewisHamilton jumps out of the car, @nico_rosberg remains seated. Feedback incoming.."
No surprise that everyone is on new softs for these crucial moments of Q2.
Hulkenberg has a messy end to his lap and only reaches 11th, two tenths shy of Verstappen.
"Track is clear, strong outlap" is the instruction to Ricciardo.
Perez and Ricciardo now set off for final efforts.
Three minutes to go.
Hulkenberg has come back out and has the track to himself. He needs to find nearly a second to jump from 13th into a Q3 spot.
Raikkonen (P4) asks if he's going out again, and Ferrari says it is preparing to send him out.
Team-mate gaps:
0.2s from Hamilton to Rosberg, 0.3s from Vettel to Raikkonen, 0.7s from Bottas to Massa, 0.2s from Sainz to Verstappen.
0.2s from Hamilton to Rosberg, 0.3s from Vettel to Raikkonen, 0.7s from Bottas to Massa, 0.2s from Sainz to Verstappen.
By: Glenn Freeman, Jack Benyon, AUTOSPORT staff, Ben Anderson, Edd Straw, Lawrence Barretto
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