The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Vettel storms to third season pole

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Sunday, Apr 17, 2011
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Sport - Racing : Motor

Vettel storms to third season pole

SHANGHAI: Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel ran away with Chinese Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday to plant his Red Bull on pole position for a likely season-opening hat-trick of wins.

The 23-year-old German, gunning for his fifth win in a row dating back to last November, nailed his fourth successive pole with so big a margin that McLaren's Jenson Button felt he might as well not have bothered trying to beat him.

“We did it again but I tried to keep reminding myself and the team as well that every single time it's tough,” Vettel, winner in Australia and Malaysia for a perfect score of 50 points, told reporters after his lap of one minute 33.706 seconds.

Button, the 2009 champion who won at the Shanghai circuit last year after Vettel also took pole position for that race, needed no reminding. He was seven tenths of a second slower in securing the other slot on the front row.

The Briton did one lap more than teammate Lewis Hamilton, who completed a trio of champions in the top three slots, in the final third stage of qualifying but that also left his compatriot with one more set of fresh tyres for the race.

While Vettel celebrated his 18th career pole, teammate Mark Webber was left staring at 18th place on the grid and wondering where his luck had gone.

The Australian had to sit out most of final practice in the morning due to problems with his Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) and then the team made the wrong tyre call at the crucial moment in the first phase of qualifying.

di Resta to start eighth

Force India's Paul di Resta secured an eighth position start, while his teammate Adrian Sutil managed to be 11th on the grid.

Meanwhile, India's Narain Karthikeyan, racing for Hispania, will start last on the grid after failing to go beyond Q1.

Top five rows:

First row: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1:33.706, Jenson Button (McLaren) 1:34.421.

Second: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) 1:34.463; Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1:34.670.

Third: Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1:35.119; Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1:35.145.

Fourth: Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) 1:36.158; Paul di Resta (Force India) 1:36.190;.

Fifth: Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) 1:36.203; Vitaly Petrov (Renault) No 3Q time . — Agencies

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