Sebastian Vettel claimed his second pole in a row and his fifth of the season today, as Red Bull Racing once again obliterated their rivals in qualifying ahead of this Sunday’s F1 2010 British Grand Prix.

Vettel, who had been quickest in final practice this morning, was at the head of the times throughout much of qualifying, posting the best time in Q1, the second best effort in Q2 and when it mattered, edging out team-mate, Mark Webber, by 0.143 seconds in the top-ten shoot-out.

In the end the German took P1 with a 1 minute 29.615 second lap, the fastest time of the weekend, improving on his final lap, even though Webber had already completed his last run and was unable to match him. It is the fifth time this year Red Bull Racing has locked out the front row.

Fernando Alonso meanwhile was ‘best of the rest’ and third for Ferrari, although somewhat ominously he was eight tenths slower, making the Red Bull’s unquestionably the strong favourites for tomorrow’s tenth round in the championship. Lewis Hamilton recovered, after McLaren opted to abandon running with its new blown diffuser this morning, to secure the other spot on the second row. Hamilton’s best was a 1m 30.556s, which left him only 0.130 seconds off his nemesis.

Nico Rosberg gave Mercedes something to cheers about after the team’s dismal run in Valencia by securing P5. Michael Schumacher also ran strongly, although in the end he had to settle for P10 in Q3, eight tenths off the sister car.

Renault man Robert Kubica and Felipe Massa were sixth and seventh, with Rubens Barrichello and Pedro de la Rosa both going well and securing positions 8 and 9 for Williams and Sauber respectively.

Force India’s Adrian Sutil just missed out on making it through to Q2 and will start eleventh, 0.055 seconds off making the cut. Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Hulkenberg took twelfth and thirteenth, the latter blocked near the end of the second Q session by Vitantonio Liuzzi. The Italian is almost certain to be penalised for chopping in front of the F1 2010 rookie and wreaking the Williams man’s lap. Liuzzi is provisionally 15th on the grid in his Force India, one spot behind Jenson Button.

Button had an awful session, mirroring his woes in practice – he was only 12th this morning in FP3. The Englishman complained about a lack of rear grip and that his McLaren felt ‘wrong’ as soon as he left the pits, describing it as quite simply ‘undriveable’. The reigning world champion’s best effort was a 1m 31.699s, more than three tenths off the Q3 cut-off point and a good half a second slower than his team-mate.

Vitaly Petrov and Sebastien Buemi were the last of the Q2 qualifiers and took 16th and 17th. Buemi will start just in front of his Toro Rosso team-mate, Jaime Alguersuari, who was the fall guy in Q1, joining the new team boys at the back end of the pack.

Heikki Kovalainen was the fastest of those runners for Lotus, moving ahead of the Virgin of Timo Glock late on. Jarno Trulli and Lucas di Grassi came in next with the Hispania’s of Karun Chandhok and Sakon Yamamoto bringing up the rear, and more than a second off P22.