Reigning champion Sebastian Vettel winning pole position in Melbourne for Sunday's Australian GP

World Formula 1 racing driver Sebastian Vettel has claimed pole for the season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix by a devastating margin ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber and Jenson Button, who finished in the next three places.

A frantic three periods of qualifying culminated in the two Red Bulls and two McLarens behind each other on the first two rows of the grid and Ferrari scratching their heads wondering how they could lose out on the first two rows of the grid after promising so much.

While Hamilton and Button will be buoyed by the surprising pace of their McLarens, the eight-tenths gap to Vettel visibly impressed his closest contenders.

Even more impressive, the time was set without the use of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) which provides extra horse-power to the 2011 Formula One cars.

Adrian Sutil pulled off the save of the year in his Force India, spinning violently as he entered the main straight and completing a spectaular 360 to resume his lap pointing in the right direction as Hamilton took to the track on the soft tyre.

In the dying stages of the session Kamui Kobayashi shifted Michael Schumacher out of the top ten, the seven-time world champion missing the third qualifying session, Q3, in his Mercedes.

That left only Vettel, Jenson Button, Hamilton, Webber, Nico Rosberg, Sebastien Buemi

Vettel set a dazzling 1m23.529sec lap with six minutes still remaining in Q3, making an emphatic point as he out-paced Webber once again by eight-tenths of a second.

Fernando Alonso set his first real time with just one minute remaining in the session, his time only good enough for fifth, and Ferrari's surprisingly bad run was complete with Felipe Massa continuing his horror qualifying run, spinning as he exited pit lane with 2m30s remaining in the session.

Vettel's time was never headed, the reigning champ finishing the session eight-tenths clear of Hamilton in second while behind the quartet of McLaren and Red Bull Alonso claimed fifth in his Ferrari. Vitaly Petrov showed the value of his innovative Renault in sixth ahead of Rosberg and Massa. Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi will start ninth ahead of Toro Rosso pilot Sebastien Buemi.

The grid for Sunday's First Round of the Formula Championship in Melbourne will be:

1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2.Mark Webber (Red Bull) and Jenson Button (McLaren)
3.Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Vitaly Petrov (Renault)
4.Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) and Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
5.Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) and Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso)
6.Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) and Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso)
7. Sergio Perez (Sauber) and Paul di Resta (Force India)
8. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) and Adrian Sutil (Force India)
9.Rubens Barrichello (Williams) and Nick Heidfeld (Renault)
10. Heikki Kovalainen (Team Lotus) and Jarno Trulli (Team Lotus)
11. Timo Glock (Virgin) and Jerome D'Ambrosio (Virgin)
12. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Hispania) and Narain Karthikeyan (Hispania)