Sebastian took his 7th pole of the season in Valencia. He outperformed Webber, Hamilton, Alonso and Massa.

With clear skies at the start of qualifying the conditions where slightly better than this morning's practice session. Sebastian Vettel proved fastest in that session by four tenths of a second. The German was followed by Alonso and Massa.

When the light at the end of the pitlane went green most drivers came out immediately. Qualifying was officially opened by Nick Heidfeld. He steered his Renault around the Valencia track in 1:41.897. Times continued to drop during the session and at the end Felipe Massa was fastest. The Brazilian was the only one of the top drivers who fitted soft tyres to make it into Q2. The usual suspects weren't able to do the same. Both HRT, Virgin and Team Lotus cars weren't able to continue their qualifying. They were joined by Jaime Alguersuari.

In the second part of qualifying everybody went out on the yellow soft tyres. It was Vettel who led the field early on with a 1:37.305. Pastor Maldonado was the first to drop out of the second part of qualifying. The Venezuelan's car stopped on track with a mechanical issue. It caused a red flag to come out but there was still 7 minutes left on the clock. All drivers had enough time to recoup their lost laps. The Red Bull and McLaren drivers were happy with their times and stayed inside their garages. Sutil was the surprise in Q2. The German beat Petrov and made it into the last part of qualifying.

Q3 started with action from the top drivers. It was a straight up battle between Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso. Vettel was able to set the fastest lap again by a margin: 0.4 second. The German did, despite a technical directive that was thought to hinder his Red Bull, a 1:36.975.