Cars

Sebastian Vettel gave himself the best possible chance of adding the inaugural Indian Grand Prix trophy to his collection by taking yet another Formula ONe pole position on Saturday.

However, the race remains wide open as the new track provides plenty of passing opportunities and the big time difference between the soft and hard tires could make for some interesting strategies.

It was a typically dominant performance from Red Bull Racing's Vettel--who has already clinched the 2011 World Championship--on a circuit made tricky by the dusty conditions, but in the end he posted the fastest lap by the healthy margin of 0.3 second ahead of his nearest rival, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton was given a three-place grid penalty for a yellow flag offense on Friday so he drops down to fifth on the starting grid, which is a great shame as his presence alongside Vettel would have guaranteed an exciting first lap. That means Vettel is instead joined on the front row by his Red Bull teammate, Mark Webber.

Fernando Alonso moves up to third for Ferrari, while Jenson Button starts fourth in the other McLaren after a scrappy session that saw him use up a valuable set of soft tires to guarantee his passage out of the first qualifying session. He made it by two spots, in 16th place.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa starts sixth after having a spectacular crash on his second and final run. The Brazilian had consistently been cutting a corner and paid the price when he hooked his right front wheel behind a curb, and the suspension failed, sending him off the road.

Nico Rosberg starts seventh for Mercedes, while Adrian Sutil did a good job at Force India's home race to take eighth. To save tires Sutil didn't do a flying lap in Q3 and neither did Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, who made the top 10 for Toro Rosso.

Vitaly Petrov was 11th for Lotus Renault but the Russian has a five-place grid penalty for hitting Michael Schumacher at the last race in Korea and thus drops to 16th. Ironically, the man who benefits is Schumacher, who moves up to 11th. Paul Di Resta, Pastor Maldonado, Bruno Senna and Rubens Barrichello also benefit.

Further down the order more penalties confuse the grid, with Sergio Perez dropping three positions for a yellow flag infringement on Friday. The HRTs of local hero Narain Karthikeyan and Daniel Ricciardo will be on the back row as both have penalties, the Indian for blocking Schumacher and the Aussie for a gearbox change.