Britain's Jenson Button put his new Brawn GP Formula One team on pole position this morning for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello will line up alongside him for tomorrow's race. Vettel (Red Bull) is third, Kubica (BMW) fourth, and Rosberg (Williams) fifth. Timo Glock is sixth for Toyota.

Ferrari's Massa and Raikkonen placed seventh and ninth. Trulli (Toyota) is seventh and Webber (Williams) tenth.

Champion Lewis Hamilton will start from 15th after not taking part in the second qualifying session. McLaren team-mate Kovalainen is 14th. Renault's Alonso is 12th.

Hamilton reportedly had a gearbox problem, which if confirmed would relegate him to the back of the grid.

Provisional Qualifying results:

Button (Britain) Brawn - Mercedes 1:26.202 2.
Barrichello (Brazil) Brawn - Mercedes 1:26.505 3.
Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull - Renault 1:26.830 4.
Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1:26.914 5.
Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Toyota 1:26.973 6.
Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 1:26.975 7.
Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:27.033 8.
Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:27.127 9.
Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:27.163 10.
Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1:27.246 11.
Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:25.504 12.
Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:25.605 13.
Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams - Toyota 1:25.607 14.
Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 1:25.726 15.
Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren (No time)
Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:26.503 17.
Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 1:26.598 18.
Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India-Mercedes 1:26.677 19.
Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India-Mercedes 1:26.742 20.
Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:26.964