Sebastian Vettel became the first driver since the late great Ayrton Senna to take pole on 10 occasions in different seasons when he posted the fastest qualifying time for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix here Saturday.


Sebastian Vettel

The 24-year-old defending world champion in his Red Bull car overcame a minor error in his first run to grab the 25th pole of his career and his first at Monzau00a0-- the venue where he celebrated his first race win in 2008.

He also maintained the Red Bull team's record of taking the pole at all 13 races this yearu00a0-- Mark Webber having taken the other three. The runaway leader of this year's title race proved that he and Red Bull have no fear of the high-speed Autodromo Nazionale Monza, where many believed they would suffer from lack of power in a straight line against their rivals. Vettel was fastest ahead of nearest rival Briton Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, who made a mistake on his final lap and finished up 0.450 seconds behind the flying wunderkind.

Force India finish 11th & 12th
Force India's Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil finished 11th and 12th fastest. Renault's Bruno Senna pipped Di Resta for the tenth spot in the dying minutes of Q2. Senna recorded 1:24.157 to better di Resta's effort of 1:24.183. Sutil managed 1:24.209 and will join his teammate on the sixth row.

Italian GP starting grid
1:Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 2:Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 3:Jenson Button (McLaren), 4:Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), 5:Mark Webber (Red Bull), 6:Felipe Massa (Ferrari), 7:Vitaly Petrov (Lotus), 8:Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), 9:Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), 10:Bruno Senna (Lotus), 11:Paul di Resta (Force India), 12:Adrian Sutil (Force India)