Vettel does it again !

Sebastian Vettel scored a fourth consecutive pole position for the Red Bull Racing Team in China with his teammate Mark Webber joining him on the front row of the grid.

The German showed the true pace of his RB6 in the dying moments of the session, with a 1’34’’558 fastest lap time that sealed him pole position for the Chinese GP.

Webber was two tenths of a second slower than his teammate but secured himself another front row start. Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg will line up on the 2nd row of the grid while both McLaren-Mercedes drivers will share the third row.

Let’s have a look at how the session unfolded:

Q1

The Lotus drivers, Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, were the first out on track. The Italian set the first timed lap of the session, while his teammate had a spin at turn 6.

They were quickly joined on track by the rest of the field bar both Red Bull and Renault’s Petrov.

The Ferraris of Massa and Alonso set the early pace but Lewis Hamilton went significantly faster with ten minutes left. The McLaren-Mercedes driver, despite some gearbox troubles, lapped the Shanghai International Circuit in 1’35’’641 to remain on top ahead of Nico Rosberg.

Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel waited for the last 10 minutes to leave the pits and safely made it into the top ten. The Australian ended Q1 in third place with his German teammate seventh right behind Jenson Button.

Vitaly Petrov’s mechanics worked hard to repair his car in time for the qualifying session and he rewarded them by making it through to Q2.

The six drivers from the three new teams were eliminated. The ‘unlucky loser’ to join them was Tonio Liuzzi which was a massive disappointment for the Force India team.

Q2

Lewis Hamilton went fastest once again and was the only one to dip under the 1’35 barrier. He went slightly quicker than Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg.

Sebastian Vettel appeared less impressive than on previous occasions and was ‘only’ fifth fastest. He was sandwiched between the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa.

Michael Schumacher narrowly made it through, beating his former teammate Rubens Barrichello for the tenth spot.

The Brazilian was eliminated as well as Alguersuari, Buemi, Petrov, Kobayashi, Hulkenberg and De la Rosa.

Q3

Sebastian Vettel took first spot on his first attempt but had to up the pace on his final run to make sure he remained on top as Mark Webber came close to snatch pole from him.

With Alonso and Rosberg third and fourth, it was rather disappointing to see both McLaren-Mercedes relegated on the third row. Having set the pace in practice, Button and Hamilton were tipped as favorites for this qualifying session.