Greater Noida, 27 October

It was not a brilliant qualifying for Scuderia Ferrari this afternoon at the Buddh International Circuit, with the two Ferrari men sharing the third row of the grid behind two McLarens and two Red Bulls. Fernando Alonso will start from fifth having posted a time of 1.25.773 and Felipe Massa sixth with a 1.25.857, in what looks like being a tough race, even if it’s the nature of the sport that anything can happen.

Vettel continued his clean sweep of the Indian time sheets taking pole, his fifth this year, in 1.25.283, ahead of team-mate Mark Webber (1.25.327.) Lewis Hamilton was third fastest for McLaren in 1.25.544. Ferrari will have to adopt an attacking strategy to try and close on the leaders, so getting a good start will be vital with all the difficulties that entails and after that, it will be a case of relying on the good race pace shown so far this weekend by the two F2012s.

The Indian Grand Prix starts at 15h00 tomorrow.