Vettel grabs third consecutive Indian Grand Prix pole

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel proved to be the best of the rest after securing his third consecutive pole position and his seventh of the season ahead of tomorrow’s FIA Formula One Indian Grand Prix.

Said Vettel, "The car was amazing; it’s a great circuit, I really like the flow of it, especially around the middle sector with the high speed corners. If the car behaves the way you want it to through that section then you’re always then going to enjoy it, as we did today."

The German set the pace towards the end of Q3 with a flying lap of 1:24.119, but his closest rivals failed to catch him as the chequered flag waved at the end of the session.

Vettel’s fellow countryman, Nico Rosberg finished Q3 behind the reigning World Champion and the pair will line up alongside each other on the grid after Rosberg took second place.

Rosberg’s team mate, Lewis Hamilton, will start tomorrow’s race on the second row of the grid after pinching the final spot in the top three at the end of qualifying.

Vettel’s team mate, Mark Webber seemed to keep up with him in the free practice sessions leading up to today’s qualifying, but did not manage to maintain the same pace when it mattered most. The Australian driver will accompany Hamilton on the second row of the grid after he ended Q3 in fourth place.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa seemed to continue the theme running through the top 10 of team mates pipping each other in the final qualifying stakes. The Brazilian driver got ahead of his team mate, Fernando Alonso by a few places after finishing in fifth place. Alonso will have a little bit of work to do in order to catch up with Massa in the race, as the Spaniard will begin from eighth place tomorrow.

Lotus-Renault’s Kimi Raikkonen was the sole car flying the flag for the team in Q3 and the top 10 shootout, as his French team mate, Romain Grosjean was knocked out of the proceedings at the end of Q1 and will find himself towards the back of the pack. Raikkonen finished a bit more better off than Grosjean and improved on his recent run of bad luck today as he qualified in sixth place.

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg got back to business as usual on the track in qualifying, despite lots of speculation in the paddock about which team he may be driving for next season. The German continued in good form today, as he has shown in the last few race weekends and he will begin the race from seventh place.

Alonso not only got out qualified by his team mate, Massa, but he will also have the two McLaren drivers to contend with as the race gets underway tomorrow. Sergio Perez and Jenson Button will begin from ninth and 10th place respectively.

Beyond the top 10 positions, Grosjean will be joined by the likes of the Force India duo of Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil, who are among those also failed to make the grade and reach the all-important Q3 session.

Following qualifying, Vettel has now conquered one of the two hurdles he is facing over this race weekend. The German claimed his 44th career pole position today and in doing so, he is in the best place to start tomorrow’s race. He certainly looks on course to possibly secure his fourth consecutive Driver’s title at the Buddh International circuit.

The only thing standing in Vettel’s way of clinching another Championship tomorrow, is if things take a sudden turn in the wrong direction and he ends the race beyond fifth place or in the event of retirement.