Sebastian Vettel secured his fifth pole position of the season this afternoon by setting the fastest time during the 2012 Indian Grand Prix qualifying session.
The German was followed by his teammate Mark Webber, which means three consecutive front row lock-out for Red Bull, with the two McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button right behind in third and fourth respectively.
Ferrari teammates Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will be sharing the third row, having qualified fifth and sixth, followed by Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen in seventh.
Serio Perez, Pastor Maldonado and Nico Rosberg completed the top 10 remaining spots. The Mercedes driver decided not to go out on a lap in order to save his tyres for tomorrow’s race.
Vettel’s starting position for Sunday’s race is crucial as he’s looking into extending his championship lead from Fernando Alonso with three races to go.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m25.283 2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m25.327 + 0.044 3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m25.544 + 0.261 4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m25.659 + 0.376 5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m25.773 + 0.490 6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m25.857 + 0.574 7. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m26.236 + 0.953 8. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m26.360 + 1.077 9. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m26.713 + 1.430 10. Nico Rosberg Mercedes no time Q2 cut-off time: 1m26.939s 11. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m26.136s + 0.701 12. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercede 1m26.241s + 0.806 13. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m26.331s + 0.896 14. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m26.574s + 1.139 15. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m26.777s + 1.342 16. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercede 1m26.989s + 1.554 17. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m27.219s + 1.784 Q1 cut-off time: 1m27.517s 18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m27.525s + 1.477 19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m28.756s + 2.708 20. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m29.500s + 3.452 21. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m29.613s + 3.565 22. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m30.592s + 4.544 23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m30.593s + 4.545 24. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m30.662s + 4.614