F1: Hamilton, Button Sweep Front Row For McLaren

Formula 1

F1: Hamilton, Button Sweep Front Row For McLaren

Teammates Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button will start 1-2 in Australia...

Jared Turner | Posted March 17, 2012 Melbourne (AUS)

Sebastian Vettel didn't win the pole or even qualify in the top five. McLaren scored a front row sweep. And a Lotus and a Mercedes will start in the top four.

Welcome to the first qualifying round of the 2012 Formula One season – a season shaping up to have quite a different look than the two prior campaigns.

Backing up his chart-topping run from Free Practice Three, Lewis Hamilton (1:24:922) captured the pole for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne's Albert Park, edging out McLaren teammate Jenson Button (1:25:074) for the No. 1 grid spot.

Newcomer Romain Grosjean rounded out the podium for Lotus, as the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher and Red Bull's Mark Webber completed the top five.

But it was McLaren that stole the show in qualifying as the famous British team backed up a solid winter with a superb performance on the first Saturday of 2012.

"It's fantastic to start the season this way and I'm massively proud of the team," said Hamilton, who notched his 20th career pole.

Button, the 2011 championship runnerup, was equally pleased.

"This is a great first result for us, and it's looking like it's going to be a very exciting season," he said.

Reigning World Champion Vettel, winner of a F1 record 15 poles in 2011, managed only the sixth-best time in the decisive Q3 round as Red Bull failed to put at least one car on the front row for the first time since Monza in 2010.

Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, Williams' Pastor Maldonado, Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo completed the top 10.

Meanwhile, Ferrari's 2012 struggles continued in qualifying as Fernando Alonso went off course and beached his car in the gravel a third of the way through Q2.

The two-time World Champion was unable to continue and slipped to 12th in the order, while teammate Felipe Massa qualified four positions further down the grid in 16th.

Failing to advance out of Q1 was the Lotus of 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen, who was making his first qualifying attempt since Abu Dhabi in 2009.

Lewis Hamilton led the way by more than a second in opening China practice. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Raikkonen clocked in 18th, having missing out on a Q2 transfer spot by one position after running off track in Turn 12 on his final Q1 lap.

As expected, the HRT cars of Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan were slowest of the 24 qualifiers, and were outside the 107 percent time that guarantees a spot on the grid.

Stewards later ruled that an exception would not be made allowing the two to compete in the race.

Qualifying concludes Saturday's on-track activities in Melbourne.

The action picks back up with Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, race No. 1 of 20 in the 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship.

SPEED's live coverage begins with a half-hour prerace show at 1:30 a.m. ET Sunday, followed by flag-to-flag coverage beginning just after 2 a.m.

Jared Turner is an Associate Editor for SPEED.com, covering NASCAR and Formula One, and is an Editor for TruckSeries.com. His professional motorsports writing career began in 2005.