Australian GP: Qualifying postponed to Sunday

Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix will be postponed until 11am local time on Sunday morning due to heavy rain showers in Melbourne.

A delayed Q1 managed to take place, but the start of Q2 was repeatedly put back due to the weather conditions.

The decision to postpone the rest of the session was finally taken nearly two hours after qualifying had begun.

The situation was complicated by further showers being forecast, so that even if the track improved, the likelihood was that the rain would immediately return.

Looming sunset added a further pressure, with little daylight left to fit in Q2 and Q3.

Nico Rosberg had been quickest in Q1 for Mercedes, which got its cars out first at the start of the session.

This meant Rosberg spent a long while on top, although he had to fight to get the position back again after everyone switched to intermediates with five minutes to go.

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton spun at Turn 2, sustaining minor rear wing damage as he nudged the barriers. Briefly stranded on the sodden grass, he eventually managed to reverse back onto the track.

That was one of many incidents during the running that did take place.

Felipe Massa and both Caterhams had to limp back to the pits minus front wings after spinning into the barriers.

Esteban Gutierrez had a similar incident but ended up stranded on track in a damaged Sauber. That left him 18th on the grid, just behind a frustrated Pastor Maldonado.

Jules Bianchi led the rest of the rear pack in his Marussia, with the crashing Caterhams at the very back.

Pos Driver                Team                    Time        Gap   
 1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m43.380s
 2. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m43.850s + 0.470s
 3. Romain Grosjean       Lotus Renault           1m44.284s + 0.904s
 4. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes        1m44.300s + 0.920s
 5. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m44.472s + 1.092s
 6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m44.635s + 1.255s
 7. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m44.657s + 1.277s
 8. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m44.688s + 1.308s
 9. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m44.871s + 1.491s
10. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                1m45.456s + 2.076s
11. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault           1m45.545s + 2.165s
12. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m45.601s + 2.221s
13. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari          1m45.930s + 2.550s
14. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m46.450s + 3.070s
15. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault        1m47.328s + 3.948s
16. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1m47.330s + 3.950s
17. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        1m47.614s + 4.234s
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari          1m47.776s + 4.396s
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth       1m48.147s + 4.767s
20. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth       1m48.909s + 5.529s
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault        1m49.519s + 6.139s
22. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault        1m50.626s + 7.246s