The reigning and defending triple Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel started the defence of his title in Australia over the weekend.
After an interesting winter testing session that left everyone pretty much none the wiser in regards to who could be heading into 2013 with an advantage, the German driver turned up in confident mood.
The Red Bull had shown good signs of pace during the winter even if it had perhaps fallen behind schedule in its preparation.
During Friday’s practice though the Red Bull really began to show it’s pace topping both free practice 1 and 2.
A rain affected Saturday meant wet running for FP3 and a postponed qualifying.
So Sunday morning brought the unusual event of two sessions of qualifying just hours before the race itself. Not that Vettel was complaining as he took pole position for the season opener alongside team-mate Mark Webber.
‘Obviously I was very happy with the result, but with the adjusted schedule we can’t be too euphoric right now – in a few hours the race is coming up, so it’s head down again to get on with that. Obviously it’s a very good result for myself and the team and with Mark in second we have a front row – it’s a surprise after not knowing where we were in winter testing.’ he told formula1.com after the Sunday morning session.
Vettel was right to not be to optimistic after setting the fastest lap because his Red Bull simply didn’t have the race pace to contend with either Lotus or Ferrari and while Mark Webber dropped away immediately following the start of the race, Vettel slowly made his way down the field losing out to both Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso as the race strategies played out with the Pirelli tyres.
After the race Vettel added: ?I think you?re always a little disappointed when you start first and don?t finish first, but overall it was a good weekend for us. We had a good day today with a pole and a podium ? but in the race we were a little too aggressive with the tyres and lost the front and the rears, while others did a little better. There are always areas where you can improve, but the result we got today is fair. We didn?t see Kimi on the track, he was too quick and Fernando jumped us at a vulnerable time ? but we can be happy with third.?
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