Webber Refuses to Judge Heidfeld's Performance

Mark Webber was quick to steer away from comparing his performance to his new Williams teammate Nick Heidfeld after setting the third fastest time in Saturday's first qualifying for his home Grand Prix.

The duo ran back-to-back in the single-lap qualifying session on a drying track and Australian Webber finished three seconds faster than seventh-placed German Heidfeld.

But Webber, who is the team leader after joining from the now-defunct Jaguar Racing team at the end of last year, said: "Nick made a small mistake so it is not fair to compare that much."

Webber and Heidfeld had not expected to be running at the sharp end of the field in Sunday's race at Albert Park but a rain shower hit midway through qualifying to leave them in the top half of the pack.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella finished fastest for Renault with a 2.099-second advantage over Toyota's Jarno Trulli and a further 1.5 seconds ahead of Webber and the order is likely to remain the same after Sunday's final qualifying.

The times from the two sessions will be aggregated and home favourite Webber admitted: "It was a very lucky session for us and whoever ran whenever the order it was whoever was going quickest at the time.

"Giancarlo was on grooves (dry tyres) and Jacques was too, and he is close to us. It was a bonus for us that it rained. The grid will stay relatively close and (tomorrow) if it is dry I can't see people being spread out."

Webber is hoping to better his best ever result this weekend by bettering the fifth-place finish he secured with backmarkers Minardi at Albert Park on his Grand Prix debut in 2002.