Sebastian Vettel was predictably cautious after securing pole position for the Australian Grand Prix, saying no points had been won yet.
Vettel was comfortably quickest as he took the sixteenth pole of his career, beating Lewis Hamilton by nearly eight tenths of a second, with both drivers unable to use their KERS to gain lap time. Vettel paid tribute to the Red Bull team, and declared himself pleased with the outcome.
"We've been working hard to get the new car to where it is now," Vettel said. "So it's mostly down to the people back in the factory, plus the people down here Down Under preparing the car and getting it ready. It was obviously a pleasure today - quite fast - and I'm very very happy with the result, but surely if you look at the points we have zero points just like everybody else so we will have to see tomorrow."
Vettel also highlighted the performance of the Pirelli tyres as being better than expected, adding to his confidence ahead of the race.
"Obviously it was a bit of a funny winter because a lot of things changed. The car's changed a lot, and obviously winter testing has been busy and we all tried to work our way around the tyres. But I think coming here we were all surprised how well they're working on one lap, and what we've seen on Friday with a bit more fuel in the car was quite promising for Sunday so we'll see how we get on. Sure we have done the first step, and obviously starting the season in that way is just how you want to, it's just a good sign for all of us in the team."
When asked about the key to having a successful race Vettel pointed to the example of last year when a wheel nut failure caused him to retire when leading. He said he was encouraged by the reliability shown by the RB7, but still couldn't be sure how the tyres would react.
"I think the key is always to finish the race and see the chequered flag. Obviously last year half way through we had to retire, but I'm quite confident, we had a very very good preparation through the winter: we hardly suffered any reliability issues so the car was reliable from the first minute and obviously also not too slow so things are looking good but it's a hard race tomorrow."
"With the new tyres it's racing a bit in to the unknown. We kind of can guess how the tyres will behave but in the end we have to see how it is, and also racing all the others having probably more than one stop, that's for sure. It will be quite entertaining for us as well - a lot of things we need to keep an eye on and focus on, so [I'm] looking forward but I think today was the base and couldn't have been any better."
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