Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel has won a fourth successive pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.
The 23-year-old German Red Bull driver's gunning for a fifth win in a row dating back to last November, and a likely season-opening hat-trick of wins in Shanghai.
Vettel nailed his pole with so big a margin that McLaren's Button felt he might as well not have bothered trying to beat him.
Button, the 2009 champion who won at the Shanghai circuit last year after Vettel also took pole position for that race, was seven tenths of a second slower in securing the other slot on the front row.
The Briton did one lap more than team-mate Hamilton, who completed a trio of champions in the top three slots, in the final third stage of qualifying but that also left his compatriot with one more set of fresh tyres for the race.
Germany's Nico Rosberg completed the second row for Mercedes with Ferrari's Spaniard Fernando Alonso and Brazilian Felipe Massa qualifying fifth and sixth in another tough afternoon for the Italian team.
