Australia – Qualifications: Rain by KO, rounds 2 and 3 Sunday morning

It’s raining heavily on Melbourne as the first qualifying rounds of the 2013 Formula 1 World Championship season are about to begin. The first session could result in a quirky grid for this year’s inaugural event.

The start of Q1 is delayed by 10 minutes. The medical car is sent out on track to test the conditions. The session is then postponed again by 10 minutes. On the track, marshals are working to clear the water with small brooms, which is not very effective as the rain keeps coming in showers. The session is then further delayed by 10 minutes before the track entrance finally opens.

Q1: The two Mercedes, of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, are eager to go head-to-head and are the first out. Keep the car on the track, that’s the advice Williams gives Pastor Maldonado, it’s wise, especially since Giedo van der Garde was punished and has to change his front wing after an off in the first sector.

The first time is set by Rosberg at 1:48.028 while Hamilton is stuck on the sidelines after going off the track in the second corner. He gets back on track with a slightly damaged rear wing. On the track, there’s traffic, and the drivers are significantly hindering each other, but Rosberg manages to slip through and continues improving with a 1:46.539.

Massa makes a mistake exiting the quick sequence of turns 11 and 12 and hits the tire wall relatively violently. He damages his nose but can continue. Jean-Eric Vergne takes advantage of these conditions to take the lead with a 1:46.339, but Sebastian Vettel displaces him by just under two-tenths. Sergio Pérez has a scare between turns 11 and 12 as well, but he doesn’t touch anything, just like Maldonado who goes straight.

With less than 5 minutes to go, the track is gradually drying, Vettel leads ahead of Vergne, Ricciardo, Rosberg, and Räikkönen. Jenson Button changes the game by setting the fastest time, on intermediates, with 1:45.192. Massa takes second place, three-tenths behind. Times are dropping quickly: Alonso takes the lead, ahead of Grosjean. Pic and Gutierrez go off the track and hit the wall, losing their front wings and likely their chance to get out of Q1, as this first part of the session ends under yellow flag conditions.

Eliminated in Q1: Maldonado, Gutierrez, Bianchi, Chilton, Van der Garde, and Pic.

Note that Charles Pic, being beyond the 107% time, will have to go before the commission to be authorized to start the race on Sunday. He was only 0.1 second short of complying with the regulations, and under these rainy conditions, the stewards are expected to be lenient.

Subsequently, the start of this second part of the session is postponed due to heavy rain that falls again, as well as because of the numerous debris strewn across the Melbourne circuit. Kimi Räikkönen takes the opportunity to eat a potato in the Lotus facilities. Logical.

The 20-minute delays continue and the sky darkens. It is therefore logical that the qualifying sessions are stopped. Q2 and Q3 will therefore take place on Sunday morning, Australian time. The last time a qualifying session took place on a Sunday morning was during the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix, due to torrential rain on Saturday.

The Q1 standings: