Sebastian Vettel secured his sixth pole position of his very young Formula One career, picking up where he finished off last season as he vies to secure his maiden word championship. Sebastian drove faultlessly through all three qualifying sessions and delivered three laps that were good enough for pole, as testimony to the team’s hard work over winter.

While he wasn’t expecting pole position, it is the best place to be starting the new season...

"It's a big surprise to get pole; we didn't know where we were with performance during the winter testing. Yesterday was a tough day for us, as we didn't do as much running as we would have liked,” he explained. “It was a long night for the mechanics and there were some tired faces this morning, but everyone was still so keen.”

“I knew we had a good car, Qualifying went smoothly and I'm very happy to be on pole. Thanks to the team, they have been so busy during the last month with a lot of testing - to be on top now is a nice feeling."

Meanwhile, teammate Mark Webber will line up in sixth position after completing what he calls his worst lap of the day. The Australian was looking good in the first and second qualifying sessions, but unfortunately he dropped a bit of time in the mid-sector of his last lap, which was the difference between the front row and sixth.

"I did my worst lap at the most important time today. It was going well until Turn 16, but it wasn't so good from there on. Seb did a good job for pole position; there was more in the car than sixth today. It's disappointing, but all is not lost and it's a long race tomorrow."