Hat-trick of poles for Vettel

Force Indias Di Resta to start eighth from the grid

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 team-mate 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.

Q3 for Force India

Force India put up their best qualifying performance of the 2011 Formula One season as Paul di Resta (1:36.190) made it to Q3 for the first time and finished eighth fastest.

Hispania’s Narain Karthikeyan was the slowest in the 24 drivers’ line-up. The Force India put up an impressive show with British driver di Resta finishing among the top 10 drivers and team-mate Adrian Sutil (1:35.874) recorded the 11th fastest time  amid overcast conditions.

Chinese GP starting grid

Driver                                 Country                             Team           

1. Sebastian Vettel            Germany                           Red Bull
2. Jenson Button                Britain                               McLaren
3. Lewis Hamilton               Britain                              McLaren
4. Nico Rosberg                 Germany                           Mercedes
5. Fernando Alonso            Spain                                Ferrari
6. Felipe Massa                  Brazil                                Ferrari
7. Jaime Alguersuari           Spain                               Toro Rosso
8. Paul Di Resta                 Britain                              Force India
9. Sebastian Buemi            Switzerland                     Toro Rosso
10. Vitaly Petrov                Russia                             Renault

Others: 11. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 12. Sergio Perez (Sauber). 13. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber). 14. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes). 15. Rubens Barrichello (Williams). 16. Nick Heidfeld (Renault). 17. Pastor Maldonado (Williams). 18. Mark Webber (Red Bull). 19. Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus). 20. Jarno Trulli (Lotus). 21. Jerome d’Ambrosio (Virgin). 22. Timo Glock (Virgin). 23. Vitantonio Liuzzi (HRT). 24. Narain Karthikeyan (HRT).