Vettel claims China pole

Sebastian Vettel will start from pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix after Red Bull again dominated qualifying.

Webber joins team-mate on all-Red Bull front row

Sebastian Vettel will start from pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix after Red Bull again dominated qualifying. The German, fresh from his victory in Malaysia two weeks' ago, stole top spot from his team-mate Mark Webber by 0.248 seconds with a final lap of one minute 34.558s at the Shanghai International Circuit. Red Bull have now taken pole in all four races this season. "It was a fantastic lap," said Vettel, 22, who won his first race for Red Bull at this event last year. "Fourth consecutive pole position for Red Bull, we have proved that we have a very fast car. But we'll see tomorrow, it could be wet ..." Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was 0.355s slower than Vettel in third, with Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP - once again out-qualifying his team-mate Michael Schumacher - in fourth. Defending world champion Jenson Button was fifth and is joined on the third row by fellow McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, who was 0.055s slower than his team-mate.

Superior

Hamilton had been fastest for much of qualifying but in the end the superior pace of the Red Bulls proved too much. Drivers' championship leader Felipe Massa starts from seventh for Ferrari, while Renault's Robert Kubica, Schumacher and Force India's Adrian Sutil round out the top 10. Rubens Barrichello, winner of the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix, was just denied a place in Q3 by Schumacher and consequently takes 11th on the grid for Williams. Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari lines up in 12th while team-mate Sebastien Buemi, who was involved in a spectacular crash in first practice on Friday, takes 13th. Vitaly Petrov crashed out of the final practice session earlier in the day and faced a race against time to get his Renault fixed for qualifying. However, the necessary repair work was completed to enable him to take part and the Russian secured 14th on the grid. Kamui Kobayashi starts from 15th with team-mate Pedro de la Rosa 17th and the Williams of rookie Nico Hulkenberg splitting the two Saubers. There was a shock for Force India, though, as Tonio Liuzzi failed to progress from Q1 with his lap time of 1:37.161 only good enough for 18th place. Aside from that there were no other surprises at the back of the grid, with the three new teams occupying the last six places. Virgin Racing's Timo Glock starts from 19th, with the Lotus duo of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen in 20th and 21st respectively. Glock's team-mate Lucas di Grassi secured 22nd on the grid, with Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok lining up on the back row for Hispania.

Temperature

A cold couple of days recently had raised some slight concerns over the track temperature for the weekend, but qualifying got under way in warm and dry conditions as Trulli was the first to make his way onto the circuit and clock a timed lap before the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso traded places at the top. Hamilton recorded the fastest lap midway through Q1 and was then the first driver to dip below one minute 35s to maintain his place at the top during Q2. Rosberg was just short of the pace of the McLaren as he slotted into second before a quiet moment on the track ensued as the cars returned to the pits to prepare for their final runs. When they re-emerged, Webber moved ahead of Rosberg while Barrichello appeared to have done enough to sneak into Q3 with his last run but was passed by Schumacher at the death. Alonso climbed to the top of the order early in the final phase of qualifying but he was quickly relegated to second by Vettel. With time running out, it had appeared Webber had done enough to take pole for the second successive race when he edged ahead of his team-mate but Vettel fought back on his last lap to give himself the ideal chance of claiming back-to-back wins. Times
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:34.558
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:34.806
3. Alonso Ferrari 1:34.913
4. Rosberg Mercedes 1:34.923
5. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:34.979
6. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:35.034
7. Massa Ferrari 1:35.180
8. Kubica Renault 1:35.364
9. Schumacher Mercedes 1:35.646
10. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:35.963
11. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:35.748
12. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:36.047
13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:36.149
14. Petrov Renault 1:36.311
15. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:36.422
16. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:36.647
17. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:37.020
18. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:37.161
19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:39.278
20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:39.399
21. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:39.520
22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:39.783
23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:40.469
24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:40.578