Mark Webber will start tomorrow's race from the pole position. He was just a little bit faster than Lewis Hamilton and his teammate Sebastian Vettel. "The session went pretty well," said Webber immediately after qualifying. "An exception was my run in Q2, which wasn't very smooth. The other sessions were good and the boys did a great job on the car; they've had some late nights in the lead up to the event, so they've recovered very well."

After completing his lap the Aussie knew that he wasn't able to go a lot faster. "I thought on my in-lap, 'if someone gets me, they deserve it', as I don't think I could have got much more out of it - it was my limit and a pretty good lap. It was very satisfying to see no one got me there at the end, it's quite an anxious wait for those thirty seconds. I will be in there pushing very hard tomorrow."

Vettel will start the race from P3. He lauded Webber's pole position: "It was a fantastic performance by Mark, with him building all the way through qualifying to produce a really great lap at the end. It was very, very tight with Lewis, Sebastian and Fernando throughout the three qualifying sessions and it was all going to be down to getting the perfect lap at the end – and Mark produced a phenomenal lap. He obviously likes it round here and has happy memories from his first grand prix victory two year ago. Sebastian lines up in P3 and is on the right side of the grid tomorrow. It was an excellent team performance and first and third, our tenth pole of the year and our thirtieth overall, is a good start to the weekend."