Vettel grabs 13th pole of the season

In yet another proof of his dominant season, Sebastian Vettel drove to his 13^th pole in the qualifying of the first ever Indian Grand Prix.

Vettel was the fastest on track with a time of 1m24.178s but since Q2 had been dominating the action. In Q3 he made a provisional pole lap of 1m24.437s and although no one was able to beat that time he still improved his command to secure another pole position.

Although Lewis Hamilton was the second fastest of the session it will be an all-Red Bull front lane as the British driver will receive a three-place penalty for a yellow flag infringement. He will go down to fifth place putting Mark Webber in second place.

Fernando Alonso almost nailed to put himself ahead of Webber, but 0.011 seconds were enough to leave the top Ferrari in third place for tomorrow’s race ahead of Jenson Button’s McLaren.

Ferrari will be the sixth on the grid of tomorrow’s inaugural Indian GP. The Brazilian crashed in the end of Q3, smashing his suspension over a curb, sliding into the gravel on the next corner.

Nico Rosberg qualified in seventh, while the three remaining drivers opted not to drive in the final stint of the session. Adrian Sutil will depart in eighth in his Force India, followed by the two Toro Rossos of Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi.

With Toro Rosso’s performance some of the most probable names to figure in Q3 were left behind. For example none of the Renaults managed to get into the final run with Vitaly Petrov probably feeling unlucky as he matched the time of Jaime Alguersuari, but the Spaniard completed it first. He was 11^th while his team mate was 15^th. Still Petrov will receive a five place penalty because of the collision with Michael Schumacher in Korea.

The German also failed to get into Q3 by only 0.018 seconds, finishing in 12^th place. The two Williams will depart in 14^th and 16^th sandwiching the Brazilian from Renault.

Sauber had a poor qualifying in India as Sergio Perez only managed 17^th spot and will receive a three-place penalty for the same reason as Hamilton. Kamui Kobayashi failed to squeeze into Q2.

India’s Nahrain Karthikeyan from HRT qualified ahead of the two Virgins in his home venue.