Vettel storms to Valencia pole

Webber joins him on the front row

Sebastian Vettel stormed to pole position for the European Grand Prix, edging his teammate Mark Webber in the qualifying session.

Unfazed by the FIA tweaks to the technical regulations – preventing the teams to use aggressive engine mappings in qualifying – the Red Bull Racing drivers locked up the front row.

Both will have to be cautious at the start as Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso will be looking to get the jump on them from the second row of the grid. Massa and Button will share the third row while the fourth row will be all-Mercedes with Rosberg and Schumacher.

Heidfeld and Sutil will line up on the fifth row.

How the session unfolded :

Q1

Nick Heidfeld and Paul di Resta opened the proceedings as soon as the light went green. More cars filtered through and, with just three minutes gone, only six drivers were still in the pits.

The Ferrari and Red Bull drivers quickly took charge at the front with Vettel leading from Alonso, Webber and Massa. The McLarens then joined the mix. Button went top while his teammate Hamilton slotted in fourth position.

The six frontrunners improved their time and, after this first run, Vettel was leading from Hamilton, Button and Alonso.

Using the softer tyre, Sergio Pérez and Sebastien Buemi jumped in the top four with their very first flying lap. Jaime Alguersuari was the last driver to post a time on the board and slotted in ninth position.

There was still four minutes on the clock. Many drivers took no chance and used a set of soft tyres. The order was shuffled as both Mercedes and Sutil entered in the top five… and Mark Webber was forced to come out for another run as he was pushed down the order.

The Australian was at risk of not making the cut but did just enough to qualify for Q2. Also at risk, Massa took on the softer tyre option and set the fastest time.

Alguersuari, Kovalainen, Trulli, Glock, Liuzzi, d’Ambrosio and Karthikeyan were eliminated.

Q2

Massa led the field out of the pits at the start of this session.

Soft tyres were used for the first run. Vettel set the fastest time ahead of Hamilton, Button, Alonso and Webber.

Massa and Alonso were both set to improve when the session was yellow-flagged and subsequently stopped. It was interrupted so that the track marshals could clear the stricken Williams of Pastor Maldonado. The Venezuelan apparently lost drive and his car came to a halt in the middle of the track.

He was 13th at the time and was thus sure to be eliminated.

Petrov and Buemi immediately left the pits as the track reopened. None of them had a time on the board and had to be quick straight out of the box. The Russian set the 9th fastest time while the Toro Rosso driver couldn’t do better than 17th.

Buemi was eliminated, so were Pérez, Maldonado, Kobayashi, Barrichello, di Resta and Petrov – who eventually missed the cut by three hundredths of a second.

Q3

The tension rose as the pole shootout began.

Fernando Alonso was the first to come out and was followed by Massa, Button, Hamilton, Webber and Vettel.

The reigning World Champion had the edge on this first run, breaking the 1’37 barrier. He was 0.4s faster than Hamilton. Alonso was third, Webber fourth.

Rosberg joined the fun but had to slot in 7th position. His teammate Schumacher opted for a single-run plan while Heidfeld and Sutil decided not to take part to this session, thus settling for P9 and P10.

The top six drivers came out in the last minutes. Alonso and Hamilton aborted their effort, prompting Vettel to also cut his effort as he was assured to take pole.