Indian GP qualifying results

Red Bull's double world champion Sebastian Vettel claimed pole position for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix.

Vettel beat Lewis Hamilton's McLaren to pole by 0.296 seconds but Hamilton will line up fifth after a penalty in Friday practice.

Mark Webber was third for Red Bull at the new circuit near Delhi ahead of Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.

Jenson Button will line up fourth, but faces an anxious time while he waits to discover if he receives a penalty.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa crashed immediately in front of Button and it remains to be seen whether the stewards will punish him for not slowing down past the scene of an accident or be lenient because he had almost no time to react.

"I saw the tyre marks and the smoke but I was already in the yellow flag zone," he said. "I backed off [afterwards]. We'll see what happens."

Hamilton's hopes of starting on pole for the second race in a row ended on Friday when he was handed a three-place grid penalty for a separate incident involving flags.

McLaren's 2008 champion had set his fastest lap when yellow flags were out to warn the drivers that marshals were on track at the last corner to retrieve Pastor Maldonado's stranded Williams.

Despite his penalty, Hamilton was pleased with his performance: "It's been a good day for me. I'm surprised we could split the Red Bulls.

"The penalty was a silly mistake for myself but overtaking should be easier and I'm still optimistic regardless of where I start."

Button had already put himself on the back foot after dropping to 16th in the first phase of qualifying because of a poor first timed lap.

"For some reason I've got no grip, I'm really, really struggling," said Button, who had to use a new set of the faster soft tyres to climb back up to third, on the pit-to-car radio.

That decision ended up compromising him and he came out for only a single stint on track in the final phase of qualifying to ensure he did not use up too many sets of tyres before the race.

"This morning the car felt good but on the hard tyre I couldn't find any grip or on the soft tyre either," added Button, who will start in fourth, ahead of Massa, because of Hamilton's penalty.

"I didn't really get a clear lap either. I think because the tyres aren't working on the first lap people are backing off and trying again, so there were cars everywhere."

While his rivals toiled, Vettel led all three stages of qualifying and coolly collected his 13th pole position of the season.

His pole saw Red Bull set a new all-time record for 16 pole positions in a single season.

"The car was fantastic since yesterday and throughout qualifying," said Vettel. "In the end there was a little bit left in the first sector.

"I'm extremely happy and it's good to be here. It will be a very interesting race on a challenging circuit.

"You have to really make sure you stay on the line and the circuit here is not forgiving mistakes. It's not easy but I enjoy what I do and I was excited when I came here."

source: bbc

I expect Vettel to stroll to victory tomorrow, seeing as the stewards single handely stripped the viewing public of an actual competitive race thanks to the punishment of his main threat Lewis Hamilton. By the time Lewis has negotiated passing his rivals for position, I fully expect Vettel to be long gone into the distance and another processional win added to his CV. Hopefully for the sake of the race, Mark Webber actually turns up (which I doubt), otherwise the inevitable will happen.

John wrote:I expect Vettel to stroll to victory tomorrow, seeing as the stewards single handely stripped the viewing public of an actual competitive race thanks to the punishment of his main threat Lewis Hamilton.

Honestly Vettel is going to romp into the distance even if hamilton didn't have a penalty and he's only got himself to blame for the penalty you can't do a personal best when their's marshalls on the track and the reason Button didn't get done is that he was not far behind massa so wouldn't have the time to react fast enough to the yellows on the board ( if wasn't a board there would be no way a steward could grab his flag that quickly) he also slowed down anyway cos he would of been going through the chicane weird bit before turn 10

I'm sick and tired of seeing that finger. Someone needs to ram this guy tomorrow

Ive been saying someone needs to kneecap him since monaco

Nobody needs to do anything to Vettel, it's the appaling Webber that has made Vettel look 'untouchable' which he quite frankly isnt. The stewarding this season has been quite frankly ridiculous too and when I see them intervene and punish Vettel's biggest threat just makes the whole situation worse and damages the entire show of F1. I would of been looking forward to a front three of Vettel, Hamilton & Alonso battling it out, however we are left with the most exciting and most threatening driver being frustrated back in fifth, where he will have to destroy his tyres while negotiating rival drivers like Webber & Button. By the time he has passed them, Vettel will be 25+ seconds up the road and the race is finished. Typical of this season, so much promise but has inevitably failed to impress