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Formula 1 Australian GP

2015 Australian Grand Prix Saturday - Qualifying

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Nasr can only stay 14th, Ericsson stays 16th.
Hulkenberg improves to ninth.
Massa's lap on softs puts him third.
Kvyat makes it through in 12th, putting Ericsson out of Q2 for now.
Near the drop zone:

11 Massa
12 Hulkenberg
13 Nasr
14 Perez
15 Ericsson
--------
16 Magnussen
17 Button
18 Kvyat
(not out: Stevens, Merhi)
Magnussen has been warned to "be careful of gusting tailwind into Turn 1".
Lead order:

1 Hamilton
2 Rosberg
3 Verstappen
4 Vettel
5 Grosjean
6 Sainz
7 Bottas
8 Raikkonen
9 Ricciardo
10 Maldonado
Mercedes, Ferrari, and the other Williams of Bottas are the only cars not going out again.
All of these improvements have resulted in Massa heading out on a set of softs to protect his place to get into Q2.
The McLarens are now heading to try to salvage this, but they need to find 0.6-0.8s to reach Perez and Ericsson.
The flying Verstappen goes third overall, ahead of Vettel and an improvement from Grosjean.
Nasr popped up to 13th.
Ricciardo pulls himself up to eighth, so it's the two McLarens below the cut-off now.
Verstappen sets the best sector one time of anyone.
Sainz flies into fourth place, so now Ricciardo is down to 16th.
Maldonado jumps to a safe sixth, putting Nasr out.
Kvyat finally takes to the track in the other Red Bull.
Maldonado and Sainz's laps faster than Nasr and Ricciardo ahead of them so far.
Nasr says he can't "feel much bite from the front brakes". Sauber gives him short shrift: "Keep working them" is the blunt response on the radio.
So focus now on Maldonado and Sainz's efforts to get out of the drop zone. Both have to find half a second.
At the back:

11 Magnussen
12 Button
13 Ericsson
14 Ricciardo
15 Nasr
----------------
16 Maldonado
17 Sainz
No time: Kvyat, Stevens, Merhi
Everyone in the bottom half of the field has switched to softs, now. In fact, make that everyone except Mercedes and Williams!
Lead order:

1 Hamilton
2 Rosberg
3 Vettel
4 Bottas
5 Raikkonen
6 Massa
7 Hulkenberg
8 Verstappen
9 Grosjean
10 Perez
Stopwatch
Hamilton comes through fastest of all on a 1m28.586s, four tenths faster than Rosberg.
Ricciardo's car is in the garage - wheels off - while Kvyat is still yet to set a lap.
Problems looming for Red Bull - Kvyat is still yet to appear with six minutes to go.
Magnussen just moved up to 11th, 0.2s ahead of team-mate Button.
"Can you look at the braking, that would be good please, with the locking that we have" - Button on the radio.
Now Hamilton is onto a second flying lap on the mediums too and is quickest of all in sector one.
Stopwatch
Rosberg is now on a better lap and goes quickest of all, a 1m28.906s on mediums to beat Vettel by four tenths.
Hulkenberg jumps up to seventh.
McLaren have joined Force India and Ferrari in sending both of its drivers out on softs to begin with. Everyone else is running on mediums at the moment.
Improvements from Williams: Bottas splits the Ferraris in second, 0.3s off Vettel, Massa goes between the Mercedes into fifth.
Button puts the McLaren ninth, then is quickly knocked back to 10th by Sergio Perez.
Bottas asks Williams about tyre choices, and he is told he needs to find another half a second. Presumably that's the benchmark Williams is aiming for to be safe without needing to take the softer tyre in Q1.
Raikkonen improves his time, including an overall best in sector three, but is still 0.4s off Vettel outright and stays second.
Hamilton does a proper lap now to go third, 0.9s off the soft-shod Vettel and 0.03s ahead of Bottas.
More trouble at Turns 1 and 15: Button has been off at the first corner (despite McLaren's warning) and Hamilton struggled to make the T15 apex.
Verstappen reports "a massive flat spot" after locking up into Turn 1.

Meanwhile, his team-mate Sainz has repeated an error from yesterday by getting a wheel on the grass and spinning into Turn 15.
Verstappen improves to go back to fifth between Rosberg and Massa.

By: Glenn Freeman, Jack Benyon, AUTOSPORT staff, Ben Anderson, Edd Straw, Lawrence Barretto

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