Motorsport: Button collars opening pole position

Britain's Jenson Button. Photo / Getty Images

Britain's Jenson Button took pole position for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix today in a front-row sweep for his new Brawn GP team.

Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello will line up alongside him. The pole was Button's first in Formula One since the 2006 Australian Grand Prix, when he was driving for Brawn's predecessors, Honda.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who has already recognised he will struggle to score points in his first race as Formula One's youngest champion, qualified 15th after being sidelined by a gearbox problem.

His Finnish team-mate Heikki Kovalainen fared little better, lining up 14th on a grid turned upside down by the sport's radical new regulations.

Ferrari's 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen qualified only ninth and Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa, last year's overall runner-up, was seventh.

Button scored only three points in 18 races last year and his career looked headed for the scrapheap only months ago after Honda announced in December they were pulling out due to the credit crunch.

Germany's Sebastian Vettel, in a Red Bull, shared the second row with Poland's Robert Kubica for BMW-Sauber.

Earlier, at the final round of practice, the Williams team again signalled notice of a F1 resurgence in 2009, with driver Nico Rosberg topping his third successive practice session in Melbourne.

After Rosberg clocked the fastest times in both Friday sessions, he repeated the dose yesterday. His 1m 25.808s lap was just three-thousandths of a second quicker than Toyota driver Jarno Trulli, with Brawn GP's Jenson Button third fastest.

All three cars were using the controversial rear diffuser technology which is currently the subject of protests by rival teams.

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton again struggled for pace in his McLaren, finishing 12th. Australian Mark Webber was seventh fastest in his Red Bull car.

Qualifying was held later and supersedes the practice finishing positions.

- AAP