Button storms to Aussie pole

Jenson Button claimed the third pole position of his career with a stunning lap in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.

The Honda driver, who is joint second in the championship, scorched around the parkland circuit in a time of one minute 25.229 seconds to finally eclipse Renault.

Button has been in the shadow of his former team so far this season but found an extra edge today to relegate Giancarlo Fisichella and world champion Fernando Alonso to second and third respectively.

Kimi Raikkonen starts fourth, over half a second down on Button's time.

Juan Pablo Montoya ruined his chances of a late surge for pole position when he spun with just two minutes remaining. The McLaren's earlier efforts proved good enough for fifth though.

Toyota's Ralf Schumacher gave an improved performance to claim sixth, one ahead of local hero Mark Webber in his Williams.

Former world champion Michael Schumacher did not even make it to the pole position shoot-out after being knocked out in the second session.

The Ferrari driver was caught out by rain and will start 10th after missing the cut by just 0.004secs, helped by a 10-place grid penalty for BMW-Sauber's Jacques Villeneuve.

Scotsman David Coulthard missed the cut in his Red Bull, earning 11th place on the grid, while highly-rated rookie Nico Rosberg was down in 14th for Williams.