The McLaren drivers and beaming returnee Romain Grosjean on Saturday looked to have knocked Red Bull from its dominant perch.
“McLaren had an upgrade at the last test and it’s performed here at Albert Park,” said former team driver and BBC commentator David Coulthard.

Lewis Hamilton beat his teammate Jenson Button to pole in Melbourne, but just a few tenths behind is the reigning GP2 champion Grosjean.

Frenchman Grosjean’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen had a dire return qualifying performance by missing the Q1 cut, describing the session as “shit” according to the German press.

In total contrast, Grosjean was beaming: “A few people believed in me through the toughest time and I’m back — almost at the top!”

The surprises continued beyond the top three: Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher is fourth, and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel sixth.

“We are aware we need to improve,” said Mark Webber, who qualified the sister Red Bull in fifth as both RB8 cars had KERS issues.

In much bigger strife is fabled Ferrari, with neither F2012 making it through to Q3.

Fernando Alonso threw his red car into the gravel and Felipe Massa is a disastrous 16th, with Sky analyst Martin Brundle described the handling of the F2012 as “horrible”.

“Forget the reds,” the summary report at Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport website, written by correspondent Andrea Cremonesi, said.

Said Spaniard Alonso: “We need to change the direction quickly if we’re to challenge for the championship. We have to react.”

Meanwhile, Lotus boss Eric Boullier answered “maybe” when asked on Sky UK television if the team will lodge an official protest against Mercedes’ qualifying result, based on the belief the W03′s F-duct solutions are illegal.

Lewis Hamilton pulled back Sebastian Vettel’s runaway lead in the world championship to 21 points by winning the thrilling Chinese grand prix.

McLaren’s Hamilton passed the previously-dominant RB7 in the closing stages in Shanghai, with Red Bull boss Christian Horner revealing Vettel had KERS problems.

“At the end, Lewis was so much quicker it wasn’t worth fighting so hard,” he told the BBC.

German Vettel also struggled with a two-stop strategy compared to Hamilton’s three, while Mark Webber in the sister Red Bull was smiling after a sensational run from 18th on the grid to finish third.

“Maybe the best thing to do is not even take part in qualifying and go from there,” the Australian joked.

Hamilton’s victory came less than two hours after his MP4-26 initially refused to start in the McLaren garage, and he came within seconds of having to start the race from the pitlane.

“It was not the greatest way to start out the afternoon but once it did start it went well,” said boss Martin Whitmarsh.

Jenson Button, ultimately fourth at the flag, featured early but lost ground, also when he accidentally drove into the Red Bull pit area for a new set of tyres.

“I was looking down and when I looked back up I could see I was in the wrong place,” he said.

“It was one of those races where there was a lot of overtaking and action, but I wasn’t quick enough.”

Hamilton’s victory ended a four-race winning streak for Vettel.

“I think we tried too hard staying on two stops,” said the German. “We did a couple of mistakes but still finished second so I’m very happy with that.”

After Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel looked set to walk pole position in Singapore, it was Fernando Alonso who mastered the street circuit on Saturday night.

The Ferrari driver, having won from pole position two weeks ago in Italy, left Vettel and his team boss Christian Horner bemused by outpacing the fastest RB6 by half a tenth.

Vettel, 23, called his Q3 effort “messy”, as Horner told British television BBC: “He touched the barrier on his final lap and that was the difference today.”

In the sister Red Bull, championship leader Mark Webber qualified fifth, having not looked comfortable between the walls of the city layout so far this weekend.

The Australian, also behind the two McLarens for the start of Sunday’s race, admitted he has had “trouble getting a rhythm around here”.

“We underperformed,” admitted Horner. “We should be two or three tenths up the road.”

In contrast, it was a notably focused session for Alonso, who grappled with having to change some settings from the cockpit following teammate Felipe Massa’s earlier gearbox failure.

“We made some safe changes in the car to avoid any risk,” said the Spaniard, whose team initially believed Massa’s problem was engine-related.

Alonso told his team on the radio: “No words, fantastic job today.”

He will have a clear run to turn 1 on Sunday at 8pm local time, alongside fellow front row sitter Vettel.

“I think we had the car to be on pole but we have a very good car for tomorrow,” insisted the German.