» Qualifying postponed until Sunday morning

Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix has been postponed until Sunday morning after persistent rain and fading light forced the FIA to suspend further running at the end of the first twenty-minute phase of qualifying.

With the action set to get underway at 5:00pm local time, the start of Q1 was delayed and after several drivers crashed out in the treacherous conditions, the second part of qualifying was repeatedly delayed while circuit officials worked frantically to dry and sweep away large areas of standing water.

Eventually, some two hours after the scheduled start time, the session was abandoned entirely as the weather and light conditions deteriorated with the persistent showers and strong wind gusts making conditions impossible.

The outcome was bitterly disappointing for the large crowds who had flocked to the circuit, with many electing to leave before qualifying even began due to the lack of weatherproof shelter, with general admission ticketholders particularly worse off.

Nico Rosberg ultimately proved quickest at the end of the first twenty-minute session, which was littered with crashes and incidents for other runners.

Rosberg’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton was one of the high-profile victims, spinning his Mercedes backwards into the Turn 2 barriers and sustaining minor damage to his rear wing.

Felipe Massa was another driver to come to grief with front-end damage to his Ferrari, while both Caterham runners, Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde, ripped the front wings from their cars after they also crashed during the session.

Sauber rookie Esteban Gutierrez was the final runner to crash out, badly damaging the front end of his Sauber with a copycat of Massa’s crash at the Turn 11-12 sweeper.

The crash ensured that Mexican was unable to escape the bottom-six, and he will take no further part in qualifying when it resumes tomorrow.

Also joining him in the drop zone was a frustrated Pastor Maldonado, who declared his Williams undriveable on the soaking conditions.

Predictably, neither of the Marussia and Caterham runners made it into Q2, with Pic narrowly failing to post a time within 107% of Rosberg’s ultimate pace-setting effort.

2013 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix – Preliminary Qualifying Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Q1 Time	Gap
1.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:43.380
2.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:43.850	+ 0.470
3.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:44.284	+ 0.904
4.	Sergio Pérez	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:44.300	+ 0.920
5.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:44.472	+ 1.092
6.	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:44.635	+ 1.255
7.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:44.657	+ 1.277
8.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:44.688	+ 1.308
9.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:44.871	+ 1.491
10.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:45.456	+ 2.076
11.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:45.545	+ 2.165
12.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:45.601	+ 2.221
13.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:45.930	+ 2.550
14.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:46.450	+ 3.070
15.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault FW35	1:47.328	+ 3.948
16.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:47.330	+ 3.950
	Q2 Cut-Off – 1:47.330		Time	Gap
17.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault FW35	1:47.614	+ 4.234
18.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:47.776	+ 4.396
19.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Racing Cosworth MR02	1:48.147	+ 4.767
20.	Max Chilton	Marussia Racing Cosworth MR02	1:48.909	+ 5.529
21.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault CT03	1:49.519	+ 6.139
	107% Cut-Off – 1:50.616		Time	Gap
NQ.	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault CT03	1:50.626	+ 7.246