Sebastian Vettel today claimed his second career pole and the first for the Red Bull Renault team. His team-mate, Mark Webber will line up 3rd on the grid which completes an extremely successful saturday afternoon for the team by any standards. Fernando Alonso will be thrilled to line up second after the Renault team worked late into the night fitting a new aerodynamic package to the R29 challenger. The double world champion duly rewarded the hard-working Enstone crew with a front-row start, two-tenths shy of Vettel.

Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button line up fourth and fifth for Brawn Mercedes. It was a fairly mixed day for the Toyota team with Jarno Trulli having a relatively routine run to sixth position on the grid while team-mate Timo Glock suffered a gearbox failure in practice and then was just 14th fastest when it counted. With a five position grid position penalty for the unscheduled gearbox change, Glock lines up at the back between the Force India duo.

The Ferrari looks a real handful to drive in Shanghai this weekend, but stripped of KERS Kimi Raikkonen at least managed to qualify eighth but there was further qualifying disappointment for Felipe Massa down in 13th position following a small error on his critical lap. Defending champion and 2008 race winner Lewis Hamilton qualified ninth in his modified McLaren Mercedes while Heikki Kovalainen was unfortunate to find traffic on his final qualifying run and was just 12th ahead of Massa, Glock and Nakajima.