Vettel storms to Indian Grand Prix pole

Sebastian Vettel will start tomorrows Indian Grand Prix from first place as the soon to be four time World Champion stormed to his eighth pole position of the 2013 season.

Nico Rosberg was the closest competition Vettel would have all afternoon and will start alongside Vettel on the first row of the grid in second place. Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton will start from third.

Mark Webber led the charge as the third and final qualifying session of the day got underway, with Alonso hot in pursuit. Tyre strategy, as always, was a key factor in who would place where within the top 10 and whilst Webber and Alonso started the session on the hard Pirelli compound, Sebastian Vettel took the opposite approach by starting on the soft compound.

Just halfway through the session Sebastian Vettel blitzed the time sheets with a 1:24.119, the fastest lap time ever set at the Buddh International Circuit in India and enough to secure pole position without having to put many laps on the car. Vettel would return to the track for one last lap as the session came to a close but his position was never really at risk as the best Rosberg could manage was a lap 0.752 seconds behind.

In the battle of the internal tyre war, it would be the soft compound that would prove fastest as the top three qualified with the yellow stripped tyre fitted.

Mark Webber, who looked to challenge for second place early in the session, would qualify fifth after struggling to match the pace set by his teammate. Felipe Massa in sixth out qualified teammate Fernando Alonso who would place just eighth whilst Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Hulkenberg split the Ferrari duo.

McLaren drivers Sergio Perez and Jenson Button round out the top ten positions as McLaren’s woes in qualifying continue.

As the chequered flag fell on Q2 of qualifying for the Indian Grand Prix, Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo placed 11th with teammate Jean-Eric Vergne in 14th. The paid are split by Force India drivers Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil, whilst Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Gutiérrez line up next to each other on the eighth row of the grid.

Lotus made an unusual mistake in attempt to get Romain Grosjean through the first qualifying session on the hard compound Pirelli tyre, a strategy which later failed as Grosjean failed to reach Q2 after finishing the previous two races on the podium. Grosjean will start from P17. Pastor Maldonado’s struggles at Williams continue as P18 is the best he could manage.

Late in the season and little change at the back of the grid where Marussia’s Jules Bianchi lines up alongside Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde whilst the back row belongs to Charles Pic and Max Chilton.

Full qualifying times and results can be found below. The 2013 Formula 1 Airtel Indian Grand Prix starts tomorrow, Sunday October 27th at 15:00 local time.