Vettel hails 'perfect' qualifying, but claims he could have been quicker

The Red Bull driver grabbed his 11th pole of the year to edge closer to his second title, beating Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber to the top spot by over three tenths of a second.

Vettel, who could become the youngest ever double champion on Sunday, said after qualifying that he could have been quicker.

"In the last run I tried maybe a little bit too much at the chicane at Turn 10," said Vettel. "I decided to abort and go easy to not damage the car. I was happy with my first lap circuit and in the end it was possible to go faster.

"But all in all a perfect session. It's a big challenge, so many corners and a long lap to get everything together. We learned from the mistakes we did in qualifying last year and kept our heads cool. It's great today to have both cars in front row, so let's see tomorrow."

Today's pole means Vettel is just three away from equalling Nigel Mansell's record number of poles during a season.

The world champion said, however, that he is not thinking of that, but rather about doing the best possible job in the race tomorrow.

"I think it was pretty exceptional," he said of Mansell's record. "It was 1992, Nigel had an incredible year. We are not doing too bad this year, but it'd be wrong to start thinking about those things. We have a long race ahead of us tomorrow, that's where we score points and not in qualifying.

"It shows that every single race is another step for us. We try to focus on the moment which is the most important to get all out. We have to keep doing what we are doing, and it's not easy to do it every weekend.

"Tomorrow is the race and that is where the focus is. I still believe Nigel's record is exceptional."