Unstoppable German Sebastian Vettel has unleashed an astonishing last gasp lap to claim pole position for the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
With his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber sitting on the provisional pole, Vettel incredibly found an extra one-tenth of a second to nail the top spot in a thrilling end to the qualifying run at the Circuit of the Americas.
Lotus driver Romain Grosjean was third ahead of a cracking run from Sauber’s Nico Hulkenburg.
Lewis Hamilton was fifth in his Mercedes while Fernando Alonso was next best in the Ferrari.
Dumped McLaren driver Sergio Perez qualified seventh ahead of Kimi Raikkonen’s stand-in, Heikki Kovalainen in the Lotus.
Webber tried valiantly in the final part of qualifying, keeping his nose in front of Vettel and then going quicker on a second set of fresh Pirellis.
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With his job done, Webber could only watch as Vettel’s final attempt saw the four-times World Champion put together a stunning lap that lit up the timing screens in the final sector.
A despondent Webber later admitted that he did not quite nail the final part of the lap, overdriving his Red Bull in an admission he had let the No 1 spot slip.
Jenson Button has had a less than memorable start to the weekend and missed the top 10 cut-off in 13th.
The English driver will now drop to 16th after he was found to have to over-taken another car under red flags during Friday practice.
Aussie Dan Ricciardo just missed the top 10 cut off, ending up Q2 in 11th in the Toro Rosso.
Sauber’s driver Esteban Gutierrez qualified in 10th but will now drop to 20th after being penalised for impeding Pastor Maldonado in the opening minutes of Q1 when he was weaving about.
Max Chilton (Marussia) was also guilty of hindering Maldonado in the same session and will be forced to serve a drive-through penalty to be taken in the opening five laps of the race. Chilton has qualified in 21st.
See below for full qualifying results
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull/Renault | 1:36.338s | – |
| 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull/Renault | 1:36.441 | 0.103 |
| 3 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus/Renault | 1:37.155 | 0.817 |
| 4 | Nico Hülkenberg | Sauber/Ferrari | 1:37.296 | 0.958 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:37.345 | 1.007 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:37.376 | 1.038 |
| 7 | Sergio Pérez | McLaren/Mercedes | 1:37.452 | 1.114 |
| 8 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus/Renault | 1:37.715 | 1.377 |
| 9 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Renault | 1:37.836 | 1.498 |
| 10 | Esteban Gutiérrez | Sauber/Ferrari | 1:38.034 | 1.696 |
| 11 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1:38.131 | 1.793 |
| 12 | Paul Di Resta | Force India/Mercedes | 1:38.139 | 1.801 |
| 13 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:38.364 | 2.026 |
| 14 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:38.592 | 2.254 |
| 15 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1:38.696 | 2.358 |
| 16 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Mercedes | 1:38.217 | 1.879 |
| 17 | Adrian Sutil | Force India/Mercedes | 1:39.250 | 2.912 |
| 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams/Renault | 1:39.351 | 3.013 |
| 19 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham/Renault | 1:40.491 | 4.153 |
| 20 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia/Cosworth | 1:40.528 | 4.190 |
| 21 | Max Chilton | Marussia/Cosworth | 1:41.401 | 5.063 |
| 22 | Charles Pic | Caterham/Renault | 1:40.596 | 4.258 |
