Vettel takes Chinese GP pole in a rout

A relaxed Sebastian Vettel had a lot to be happy about on Saturday

Gunning for his third straight 2011 win in a trot, Red Bull F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel swept to his third pole in three races in Shanghai Saturday afternoon by a comfortable margin of 0.7 sec. over the McLarens of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.

But while Vettel sat on top of the qualifying times, his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber will start the race in 18th after his team made a tire management mistake during Q1 qualifying.

Webber's car was repaired from its morning problems, but appeared to be running without KERS and was sent out on the harder tires that were not properly warmed at the end of Q1 as everyone else near the cut-off went for softs. As Michael Schumacher and Pastor Maldonado leapfrogged past him, Webber wound up 18th and done.

“It’s a very frustrating day," said Webber. "We didn’t have a smooth P3 or Q1 and we paid the ultimate price at end of the day. We thought we had enough to get through on the prime tires – we have the pace, but I couldn’t get the tire working on my second run. We’ll see what we can do tonight, but I can only go forwards. I can't remember the last time I was out in Q1; it was a long, long time ago, so it was a bad day for us."

Jenson Button beat his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton to the outside front row position by 0.042s, but the two British drivers are faced with a Woking car that is a whopping 0.7s slower than Vettel's Red Bull Renault.

Nico Rosberg gave Mercedes some hope with fourth place, only 0.2s down on the McLarens. The Ferraris share row three with Fernando Alonso ahead of Felipe Massa, both out of reach for the win on Sunday barring any major pileup at the front.

Afterward a happy Vettel said, “We have done it again, but every single time is tough. I think today wasn’t as straightforward as we planned – especially in Q2; I made a bit of a mistake in the run I did then. In Q3 I was confident that we were able to improve quite a lot. Obviously today we did a good job, but it’s just eight meters on the track tomorrow. It will be a long race, but I think we can be happy with the car. We did some good long runs on Friday and so we have a reason to feel good, but it’s also a threat to feel too good – so I pay attention that doesn’t happen."

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