Vettel beats Ferrari drivers to pole

It was the sixth pole in seven races for the Red Bull driver and also the 21st of his career.

Vettel's time of 1m13.014s put him in first place ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, the Italian squad enjoying its strongest outing of the year so far.

Mark Webber had to settle for a place on the second row of the grid after securing fourth.

Despite being tipped as one of the favourites to fight for pole and victory, the McLaren team endured a rather low-key day, as last year's winner Lewis Hamilton could only secure fifth position. Team-mate Jenson Button was seventh, behind Mercedes's Nico Rosberg.

Michael Schumacher was eighth.

Both Renaults made it into the top-ten shootout this time, with Nick Heidfeld qualifying in ninth position and Vitaly Petrov down in 10th.

Paul di Resta qualified in 11th position for Force India, the Scot enjoying another strong qualifying after finishing ahead of team-mate Adrian Sutil, 14th today.

Another rookie, Pastor Maldonado, also outqualified his more experienced team-mate Rubens Barrichello, the Venezuelan four places ahead of the Brazilian in 12th position. Kamui Kobayashi will start from 13th place, in front of Sutil and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi.

Pedro de la Rosa, replacing the unwell Sergio Perez at Sauber, put on a decent performance despite his lack of running, making it to Q2 and finishing around three tenths of team-mate Kobayashi in 17th place.

The first qualifying segment began under very cloudy skies, but the rain held off for the whole hour despite that.

Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari endured a disappointing day after he was knocked out in Q1, being relegated to 18th position by a last-gasp effort from Kobayashi. The Spanish driver struggled for grip and with his brakes, although he admitted there was not a lot of time to be found.

Jarno Trulli outqualified Lotus team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, as both men were again out in the first qualifying segment. They were joined Tonio Liuzzi in the Hispania, who managed to outpace both Virgins, with Timo Glock in 22nd and Jerome D'Ambrosio last behind Narain Karthikeyan.

Belgian D'Ambrosio failed to qualify for the race after finishing nearly half a second off the 107 per cent time.

He could still be allowed to race by the stewards, although the Virgin driver only ran within the 107 per cent of the fastest time in the opening practice session on Friday.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time         Gap   
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m13.014s
 2.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m13.199s  + 0.185
 3.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m13.217s  + 0.203
 4.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m13.429s  + 0.415
 5.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m13.565s  + 0.551
 6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m13.814s  + 0.800
 7.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m13.838s  + 0.824
 8.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m13.864s  + 0.850
 9.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m14.062s  + 1.048
10.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m14.085s  + 1.071
Q3 cut-off time: 1m14.467s                                  Gap **
11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m14.752s  + 1.321
12.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m15.043s  + 1.612
13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m15.285s  + 1.854
14.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m15.287s  + 1.856
15.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m15.334s  + 1.903
16.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m15.361s  + 1.930
17.  Pedro de la Rosa      Sauber-Ferrari       1m15.587s  + 2.156
Q3 cut-off time: 1m16.229s                                    Gap *
18.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m16.294s  + 2.472
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m16.745s  + 2.923
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m16.786s  + 2.964
21.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m18.424s  + 4.602
22.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m18.537s  + 4.715
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m18.574s  + 4.752
24.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m19.414s  + 5.592

107% time: 1m18.989

* Gap to quickest in Q1

** Gap to quickest in Q2