Sebastian Vettel says the field will be heading into the Australian Grand Prix in the dark about the life of Pirelli's tyre compounds, explaining that the situation is 'unknown' after a mixed weather qualifying session that saw intense degradation.
The Red Bull driver comfortably claimed pole position for the race, despite pitting to save tyres in the final stages of Q3 amid fears over the durability of the Super Softs.
"I think it is an unknown," Vettel said of the tyres. "All we can say is that it is surprisingly cool and a lot cooler than we were expecting. I don't know what is realistic, it could be a couple of laps or a couple of laps more. We have to go with what we have."
Although tyre life is a concern, Vettel was encouraged by the handling of his RB9 as the weather conditions improved, explaining that it felt similar to his runs on Friday and enabled him to instantly find a rhythm.
"I had two good runs and got into the groove," he said. "The car felt similar in balance to Friday, so I was happy and ready to push on the lap. It was tricky to find the limit, especially in the fast bit, Turns 11 and 12. But overall I am pretty happy with the lap and, as soon as I got confirmation it was enough, I pulled in to save the tyres."
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:27.407 | 27 |
| 2. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:27.827 | 26 |
| 3. | L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 01:28.087 | 29 |
| 4. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:28.490 | 23 |
| 5. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:28.493 | 26 |
| 6. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:28.523 | 28 |
| 7. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 01:28.738 | 27 |
| 8. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 01:29.013 | 25 |
| 9. | P. di Resta | Force India | 01:29.305 | 23 |
| 10. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:30.357 | 24 |
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| Sebastian Vettel | |||
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| More Sebastian Vettel photos | |||
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