F1 GP Europe: pole position for Vettel, front row Red Bull

Pole position for Sebastian Vettel at the Formula 1 European GP. The German beat his Red Bull teammate, Mark Webber, two tenths behind, and Lewis Hamilton's McLaren Mercedes. Fourth and fifth positions on the grid for the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, five and six tenths behind respectively. Sixth position for Jenson Button in the other McLaren, seventh and eighth for the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. Nick Heidfeld and Adrian Sutil close the top 10.

In Q3 Alonso was the first to set a time, shortly after overtaken for the lead by Hamilton and then by Vettel in 1.36.975. The first run therefore ended with the German ahead of the Englishman and the Spaniard, with Webber fourth ahead of Button, Massa, and Rosberg while Schumacher chose to run only one run on soft tyres, as did Heidfeld while Sutil gave up the third session, settling for tenth place on the grid.

On the second run Webber managed to move into second position with the best partial in the final stretch while Alonso was unable to improve and after the first two less than exciting partials he gave up his lap and returned to the pits.

Q2 was interrupted at 14.34pm to remove Pastor Maldonado's Williams, which remained stopped on the track due to a technical problem. At the restart after a few minutes Petrov (Renault) was eliminated in 11th place ahead of Paul di Resta (Force India), Rubens Barrichello (Williams), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) and Pastor Maldonado (Williams). 16th Sergio Perez returning with Sauber ahead of Buemi's Toro Rosso.

Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso), the two Lotuses of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock (Virgin), Tonio Liuzzi (HRT), Jerome d'Ambrosio (Virgin) and Narain Karthikeyan (HRT) were eliminated in Q1.

F1 GP Europe – Qualifying results Valencia

Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m36.975 2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m37.163 + 0.188 3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m37.380 + 0.405 4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m37.454 + 0.479 5. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m37.535 + 0.560 6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m37.645 + 0.670 7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.231 + 1.256 8. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.240 + 1.265 9. Nick Heidfeld Renault No time 10. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes No time 11. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m39.068s + 1.763 12. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m39.422s + 2.117 13. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m39.489s + 2.184 14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.525s + 2.220 15. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m39.645s + 2.340 16. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.657s + 2.352 17. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m39.711s + 2.406 18. Jaime Alguersua re Taurus Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.232 + 1.819 19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m41.664 + 3.251 20. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m42.234 + 3.821 21. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m42.553 + 4.140 22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT- Cosworth 1m43.584 + 5.171 23. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m43.735 + 5.322 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m44.363 + 5.950