Sebastian Vettel showed Red Bull’s speed advantage remained despite recent rule changes as he led a one-two with team-mate Mark Webber in qualifying for the European Grand Prix.

Vettel set a new lap record of 1:36.975 on the Valencia street circuit as he beat Webber to pick up his 7^th pole position in eight races so far this season.

After his dramatic crash during last year’s race, Webber will be delighted with his front row spot after a difficult time in qualifying so far this season and was able to push Vettel close, ending up around 200ths of a second behind his team-mate.

Rule changes for the European Grand Prix meant that teams would be unable to change the mapping of their cars engines between qualifying and racing, with most believing Red Bull’s pace in Saturday’s qualifying would be compromised by no longer being allowed to run a more extreme set up – but both drivers sent an ominous warning of their true race pace to the chasing pack.

“After a positive Friday practice for Ferrari and Alonso (who made two mistakes on his final aborted run), the famous Italian team will be slightly disappointed not to have been challenging for the front during Q3 but will still be confident of taking something from the race on Sunday.”

Lewis Hamilton was pleased with his efforts as he made the best of his qualifying as he grabbed 3^rd spot after his McLaren continued to struggle on the medium compound tyre in the final practice session, while team-mate Jenson Button failed to carry any momentum over from his spectacular win at the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks ago, eventually qualifying in 6^th place.

Hamilton and home crowd favourite Fernando Alonso, who qualified in 4^th with team-mate Felipe Massa behind in 5^th, both aborted a final run that could have seen either one challenge Vettel’d dominance.

After a positive Friday practice for Ferrari and Alonso (who made two mistakes on his final aborted run), the famous Italian team will be slightly disappointed not to have been challenging for the front during Q3 but will still be confident of taking something from the race on Sunday.

Further down the grid Pastor Maldonado, who held up Q” after his Williams came to a halt mid-way through the session ended up in 15^th, with team-mate Rubens Barichello two places ahead in 13^th. Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher qualified in 7^th and 8^th respectively.

Quotes:

Sebastian Vettel: “It was a very good day for us. It’s good to have the front row for our team. It’s a tricky circuit with 25 corners so to get a perfect lap in was tough, but it’s good result.”

Jenson Button: “It’s not very good. The car felt pretty good in Q2 but then in Q3, I had massive oversteer. I don’t know why but I just couldn’t get any rear grip. The car was great this morning in practice but with the heat maybe our balance isn’t working because of the track temperature. I just didn’t expect it. It’s not great but we’ll still have a good race.”

Michael Schumacher: “I am OK with today’s qualifying result which I would say was an average one,” said Schumacher. “I might have improved by one place but in the penultimate slow corner, I attacked a bit too early, got oversteer and had to lift for a moment which cost me the place to Nico.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh: “Let’s see what’s possible in the race,” said Whitmarsh. “It’s our business to believe we can beat the Red Bulls. In the last few races we’ve had a quicker race car and you can overtake this season as has been shown.It will be tough, but it’s easy to get strategy wrong – they could get it wrong, we could get it wrong. We’ll see.”

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