Chinese GP: Vettel take pole position

Sebastian Vettel pulled the proverbial rabbit out the hat with another magnificent last gasp effort that saw him steal pole position in the dying moments of qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai International Circuit.

The young German, fresh from victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix, left the best for the very last as he turned the tables on a strong showing from the McLaren Mercedes duo and his own team mate Mark Webber who briefly topped the timing screens, and must have believed he had it in the bag, before Vettel once again made it count when it mattered with a mega effort which even surprised his team boss.

Christian Horner said afterwards, “I have no idea where Sebastian pulled that lap from. He’s been struggling in sector one all weekend and he pulled a great lap just to pip Mark.”

With Webber in second, Red Bull Racing will once again hog the front row of the Shanghai grid for the start of the Chinese Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) who was relatively subdued up until the final moments of qualifying was third fastest and will head up the second row with Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP) beside him in fourth.

The McLaren duo who looked feisty all session wrong will be disappointed that their best in Q3 was only good enough for fifth and sixth for Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton respectively. The reigning champion getting the better of his team mate who up until Q3 was dominating proceedings and seemed destined for pole position, alas for him destiny had other plans.

Hamilton was clearly disappointed, “We were doing so well in practice, Q1 and Q2, then the car started bottoming a lot more in Q3. I really don’t understand what was wrong with the car. We have to go and analyse it.”

This report is in the process of being updated.

Qualifying Lap Times

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	5	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:36.317	1:35.280	1:34.558
2	6	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:35.978	1:35.100	1:34.806
3	8	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:35.987	1:35.235	1:34.913
4	4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1:35.952	1:35.134	1:34.923
5	1	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:36.122	1:35.443	1:34.979
6	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.641	1:34.928	1:35.034
7	7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:36.076	1:35.290	1:35.180
8	11	Robert Kubica	Renault	1:36.348	1:35.550	1:35.364
9	3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1:36.484	1:35.715	1:35.646
10	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:36.671	1:35.665	1:35.963
11	9	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:36.664	1:35.748
12	17	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	1:36.618	1:36.047
13	16	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:36.793	1:36.149
14	12	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:37.031	1:36.311
15	23	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:37.044	1:36.422
16	10	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:37.049	1:36.647
17	22	Pedro de la Rosa	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:37.050	1:37.020
18	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1:37.161
19	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:39.278
20	18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1:39.399
21	19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1:39.520
22	25	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1:39.783
23	21	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1:40.469
24	20	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	1:40.578

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