The Red Bull driver was quickest in Q2, and carried that form into Q3 with a 1m24.437s provisional pole on his first flying lap. No one managed to beat that, but Vettel improved to 1m24.178s anyway to firmly cement his pole.
It will be an all-Red Bull front row, as although Lewis Hamilton was second quickest for McLaren, his three-place penalty for a yellow flag infringement in practice will drop him to fifth and elevate Mark Webber from third to second.
Fernando Alonso was just 0.011 seconds down on Webber in the top Ferrari, with Jenson Button next up for McLaren.
Felipe Massa took sixth on the grid despite crashing right at the end of Q3 when he smashed his suspension over a kerb then skated off into the gravel at the next corner.
NicoRosberg was seventh for Mercedes, while the remaining Q3 men all chose to sit out the segment to save tyres. Adrian Sutil was classified eighth in the only Force India to make it to Q3, with his team-mate Paul di Resta in 13th. Both Jaime Alguersuari and SebastienBuemi also reached Q3 but Toro Rosso opted not to run.
Toro Rosso's strong performance squeezed some likely top 10 names outside the Q3 cut. Neither Renault made it - VitalyPetrov and Bruno Senna will start back in 11th and 15th, although Petrov could consider himself unlucky as he equalled 10th-placed Alguersuari's Q2 time but the Spaniard got there first. Petrov is carrying a five-place grid penalty for colliding with Michael Schumacher in Korea in any case.
Schumacher also narrowly missed out, the Mercedes driver missing Q3 by 0.018s as he qualified 12th.
The two Williams of Pastor Maldonado and Rubens Barrichello sandwiched Senna in 14th and 16th.
It was a tough qualifying for Sauber. Sergio Perez was only 17th and will take a three-place penalty anyway for the same misdemeanour as Hamilton, while Kamui Kobayashi was eliminated in Q1 - a fate that could have befallen either Button or Schumacher had they not squeezed out strong late laps amid traffic.
Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan qualified ahead of both Virgins for his home race, and will gain another position from his HRT team-mate Daniel Ricciardo taking a gearbox penalty. Another gearbox fault meant Virgin's TimoGlock was firmly slowest.
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1m24.178s | |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m24.474s | + 0.296 |
3 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1m24.508s | + 0.330 |
4 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1m24.519s | + 0.341 |
5 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m24.950s | + 0.772 |
6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1m25.122s | + 0.944 |
7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1m25.451s | + 1.273 |
8 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | ||
9 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | ||
10 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | ||
Q2 cut-off time: 1m26.319s | Gap ** | |||
11 | VitalyPetrov | Renault | 1m26.319s | + 1.662 |
12 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1m26.337 | + 1.680 |
13 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1m26.503s | + 1.846 |
14 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 1m26.537s | + 1.880 |
15 | Bruno Senna | Renault | 1m26.651s | + 1.994 |
16 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1m27.247s | + 2.590 |
17 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1m27.562s | + 2.905 |
Q1 cut-off time: 1m27.479s | Gap * | |||
18 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1m27.876s | + 1.687 |
19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1m28.565s | + 2.376 |
20 | JarnoTrulli | Lotus-Renault | 1m28.752s | + 2.563 |
21 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1m30.216s | + 4.027 |
22 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT-Cosworth | 1m30.238s | + 4.049 |
23 | Jerome D'Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 1m30.866s | + 4.677 |
24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1m34.046s | + 7.857 |
Story source: Autosport.com