Vettel heads Red Bull one-two at Melbourne

(Reuters)

Sebastian Vettel will start from pole for the second successive race as he led a Red Bull one-two ahead of local favourite Mark Webber in qualifying for tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix.

The German, who finished runner up in last year's Formula One championship, had first place wrapped up by midway through Q3 when he clocked a time of one minute 23.919 seconds at the Albert Park circuit.

Webber, desperate to claim a maiden victory at his home grand prix, was just 0.116secs behind as he finished second.

Bahrain GP winner Fernando Alonso will line up third on the grid in his Ferrari while reigning world champion and Jenson Button starts from fourth in his second race for McLaren.

But of surprise was former world champion Lewis Hamilton's failure to progress from Q2 and the McLaren driver will start from 11th on the grid.

"It is a great result for both of us and for the team," said Vettel. "It is a long race tomorrow but looking at qualifying today, I think we did well coming in with the car and improvements we made.

"The result says it all and I am looking forward to tomorrow."

Australian Grand Prix provisional qualifying result from Melbourne

1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull - Renault 1 min 23.919 secs

2. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1:24.035

3. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 1:24.111

4. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 1:24.675

5. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:24.837

6. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 1:24.884

7. Michael Schumacher (Germany) Mercedes 1:24.927

8. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Williams-Cosworth 1:25.217

9. Robert Kubica (Poland) Renault 1:25.372

10. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India-Mercedes 1:26.036

11. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1:25.184

12. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:25.638

13. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Force India-Mercedes 1:25.743

14. Pedro de la Rosa (Spain) BMW Sauber - Ferrari 1:25.747

15. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Williams - Cosworth 1:25.748

16. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) BMW Sauber - Ferrari 1:25.777

17. Jaime Alguersuari (Spain) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:26.089

18. Vitaly Petrov (Russia) Renault 1:26.471

19. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Lotus - Cosworth 1:28.797

20. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Lotus - Cosworth 1:29.111

21. Timo Glock (Germany) Virgin - Cosworth 1:29.592

22. Lucas Di Grassi (Brazil) Virgin - Cosworth 1:30.185

23. Bruno Senna (Brazil) HRT - Cosworth 1:30.526

24. Karun Chandhok (India) HRT - Cosworth 1:30.613