Sebastian Vettal claims pole in Valencia. (Photo:AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Sebastian Vettel pipped Mark Webber in Valencia to claim pole in another all RedBull front row.

Leading up to the Gp at Valencia, RedBull said that they expected to struggle at the track. However closing out the front row of the grid seems to have put an end to that theory. They issue for RedBull however is whether they will have the race pace to claim victory on Sunday.

The team has used it’s F-Duct for the first time this season and it seam to be paying off on the straights. The RedBull appear to have a little bit more top speed due to the upgrade. This coul prove vital to staying ahead of McLaren who have very good top speed but lack the downforce the RedBUll have in the corners.

Lewis Hamilton was on a very quick lap in the dying stages of Q3, however due to a brake lockup into turn 12, he decided to abort his lap and would have to be content with 3rd place, although he looked set to top Mark’s if not Vettel’s time.

With RedBull and McLaren now locked in very tight fight for the championship, every half second counts and both team seem to be working hard on upgrades each GP. In the post race press conference Mark Webber said he was very happy that the team had locked out the front row and that they weren’t expecting to be as quick at Valencia. He said that if you had to pick a circuit to race your competitors, Valencia would not be it.

The big surprise of the day was that for the first time this year, neither Mercedes made it into the top 10. Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher will be starting from P12 and P15 on the grid respectively.

It appears that RedBull again have the pace to stick with McLaren. Lewis Hamilton noted that the team was not confident during practice, knowing that teams like RedBull had brought vital upgrades to this round and the fact that they were off the pace in Practice, he is delighted to be started from the second row and remains confident that they could claim victory on Sunday.

Robert Kubica had tremendous pace in the Renault throughout the sessions and would have expected to do very well in Q3, however in the end he finished 6th behind the two Ferrari’s of Alonso and Massa. Jensen button was a fair way off the pace of his team mate. He will start the race from P7, just ahead of the two Williams who are both in the top 10 for the first time this season. Williams no doubt are delighted with the pace this weeked and having Hulkenberg in P8 and Rubins in P9 on the grid will be a welcome boost for the team who so far has struggled for pace this season.  Petrov rounds out the top 10 who was a fair way off the pace of his Renault Team mate.

The detaild times of Qualifying are below:

Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1        Q2        Q3

1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault      1:38.324   1:38.015   1:37.587

2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1:38.549   1:38.041   1:37.662

3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes      1:38.697   1:38.158   1:37.969

4.  Alonso         Ferrari               1:38.472   1:38.179   1:38.075

5.  Massa          Ferrari               1:38.657   1:38.046   1:38.127

6.  Kubica         Renault               1:38.132   1:38.062   1:38.137

7.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1:38.360   1:38.399   1:38.210

8.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1:38.843   1:38.523   1:38.428

9.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth     1:38.449   1:38.326   1:38.428

10.  Petrov         Renault               1:39.004   1:38.552   1:38.523

11.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:39.096   1:38.586

12.  Rosberg        Mercedes              1:38.752   1:38.627

13.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1:39.021   1:38.851

14.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes  1:38.969   1:38.884

15.  Schumacher     Mercedes              1:38.994   1:39.234

16.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari        1:39.003   1:39.264

17.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:39.128   1:39.458

18.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari        1:39.343

19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth        1:40.658

20.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth        1:40.882

21.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth       1:42.086

22.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1:42.140

23.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth          1:42.600

24.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth          1:42.851