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Sebastian Vettel made it a little difficult for himself on Saturday in India after his first run in the final qualifying session was spoiled by an oversteer slide in Turn Seven, but the world champion duly took yet another pole position for Red Bull with his subsequent run of 1m 25.283s.
Team mate Mark Webber’s first run time of 1m 25.327s held up for second, but McLaren were closer than might have been expected after FP3 with Lewis Hamilton improving to third on 1m 25.544s from Jenson Button on 1m 25.659s. Nevertheless, they couldn't prevent Red Bull's third successive front-row lockout - the first time the team have achieved the feat.
Fernando Alonso’s second run was inferior to his first, leaving him fifth on 1m 25.773s from Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa, who lapped in 1m 25.857s on his second go. Lotus came up short for Kimi Raikkonen, who was seventh on 1m 26.236s ahead of Sergio Perez on 1m 26.360s for Sauber. Pastor Maldonado posted 1m 26.713s to take ninth for Williams, while Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg completed the top 10 without setting a Q3 time.
Vettel had ruled Q2 with an early lap of 1m 25.435s, which Button all but matched with 1m 25.467s right at the end, while further back a mistake in the second sector killed Romain Grosjean’s chances of getting into Q3 and left him in 11th place with 1m 26.136s.
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg also got bumped close to the end after improving to 1m 26.241s, while Bruno Senna’s good run came to an end when 1m 26.331s left him 12th for Williams. Michael Schumacher’s last run of 1m 26.574s in the Mercedes wasn’t enough for better than 14th, while Daniel Ricciardo’s 1m 26.777s in the Toro Rosso was 15th and left him ahead of an unhappy Paul di Resta for Force India on 1m 26.989s and final runner Kamui Kobayashi on 1m 27.219s for Sauber.
As Maldonado had staged a very late jump to fastest time of 1m 26.048s ahead of Vettel and Hamilton, Q1 weeded out Jean-Eric Vergne, who took his Toro Rosso to 1m 27.525s and thus missed out to Kobayashi by eight-hundredths, the Caterhams, the Marussia and the HRTs.
Vitaly Petrov was fastest of the sextet on 1m 28.756s and Caterham team mate Heikki Kovalainen threw it into the gravel trying to better 1m 29.500s for 20th. Timo Glock was 21st with 1m 29.613s for Marussia, while Pedro de la Rosa just edged out HRT team mate Narain Karthikeyan with 1m 30.592s to 1m 30.593s. Marussia’s Charles Pic brought up the rear with 1m 30.662s.
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