Webber secures third pole in a row

Sebastian Vettel was again the slower Red Bull in qualifying and took third, while Ferrari faces a tough time in its 800th grand prix, with Fernando Alonso a disastrous 12th on the grid having failed to find enough speed in Q2 and Felipe Massa at least reaching Q3 but qualifying only eighth.

Webber was fastest on both runs in Q3, taking provisional pole with a 1m26.510s and then improving to 1m26.295s on his final attempt.

McLaren's Hamilton beat Webber's time in the first and third sectors, but in the middle of the lap the Red Bull was unbeatable, so Hamilton had to settle for second, 0.138 seconds adrift.

A lock-up into the first corner ended Vettel's chances of challenging Webber for pole with his last lap, so he starts third, just ahead of Jenson Button in the second McLaren.

Despite spinning off at Turn 8 and getting stuck in the gravel at the end of Q3, Michael Schumacher outqualified Nico Rosberg as the Mercedes pair shared row three.

It was a good day for Renault - as Robert Kubica took seventh and Vitaly Petrov made his first Q3 appearance and secured ninth, with Massa sandwiched between them. Sauber also got back into the top ten with Kamui Kobayashi joining Petrov on row five - although he used up his tyres in Q2 trying to get there so barely featured in the final shoot-out.

Alonso's Q2 departure was by far the biggest shock of the session. The double world champion's first Q2 attempt was shuffled back outside the top 10 by the end, and in trying to fight back he made a mistake under braking for the final complex. Although Alonso still had time to squeeze in one final lap after that, it was too slow and he ended up only 12th, 0.4s off Massa's Q2 pace.

Adrian Sutil (Force India) missed out on the top ten again as Kobayashi's late jump into Q3 pushed him back to 11th. Pedro de la Rosa could not emulate his Sauber team-mate Kobayashi so starts 13th, with the Toro Rossos and Williams also departing in Q2.

For the second time this year, Force India's Tonio Liuzzi was the man who joined the new teams on the sidelines after Q1. Lotus was again the fastest among the newcomers, with Jarno Trulli ahead of Heikki Kovalainen.

Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1        Q2        Q3       
 1.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:27.500  1:26.818  1:26.295
 2.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:27.667  1:27.013  1:26.433
 3.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:27.067  1:26.729  1:26.760
 4.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:27.555  1:27.277  1:26.781
 5.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:27.756  1:27.438  1:26.857
 6.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:27.649  1:27.141  1:26.952
 7.  Kubica         Renault                1:27.766  1:27.426  1:27.039
 8.  Massa          Ferrari                1:27.993  1:27.200  1:27.082
 9.  Petrov         Renault                1:27.620  1:27.387  1:27.430
10.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:28.158  1:27.434  1:28.122
11.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:27.951  1:27.525
12.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:27.857  1:27.612
13.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:28.147  1:27.879
14.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:28.534  1:28.273
15.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:28.336  1:28.392
16.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:28.460  1:28.540
17.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:28.227  1:28.841
18.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:28.958
19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:30.237
20.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:30.519
21.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:30.744
22.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:31.266
23.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:31.989
24.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth           1:32.060

All Timing Unofficial