Sebastian Vettel posted the quickest time when it really mattered to secure pole for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim – giving the Red Bull man his third successive pole position and sixth of the 2010 season.

As anticipated, the battle for pole came down to a straight fight between Red Bull and Ferrari after the two teams led the way through the three free practice sessions.

Fernando Alonso led the way through both Q1 and Q2 as he looked to secure a first pole for Ferrari since 2008 and the Spaniard set the early benchmark in Q3 before the drivers elected to pit for fresh tyres ahead of one final run for pole.

Vettel headed onto the circuit for his final run ahead of the other drivers in contention for pole and stormed to a best time of 1min 13.791secs to move to the head of the pack. Alonso however was still coming quickly behind and took the chequered flag just 0.002secs behind the German.

While that prevented Alonso from securing pole, the Spaniard was able to console himself in the fact that second still marks his best qualifying performance of the season.

The top two proved to be in a class of their own as the only two drivers to lap below the 1min 14secs marker, with Felipe Massa third but half a second back. Mark Webber meanwhile had to settle for fourth place, with his hope of fighting for pole coming to an end when he ran wide exiting turn one on his final quick lap and was forced to abort his run.

McLaren proved to be best of the rest with Jenson Button managing to outqualify Lewis Hamilton for the first time since the Chinese Grand Prix back in April. Despite struggling with the balance of his car during practice, Button was able to lap a tenth of a second quicker than Hamilton, while Robert Kubica followed the pair in seventh for Renault.

Rubens Barrichello was eighth for Williams as the team got both cars through to Q3, with Nico Hulkenberg in tenth. Countryman Nico Rosberg was ninth and split the Williams duo although he was unable to match the kind of performance shown by the Mercedes team during practice.

The performance of Mercedes was one of the big disappointments of the session as Rosberg’s team-mate Michael Schumacher failed to make it through to Q3. The seven-time champion found himself on the bubble in the closing stages of Q2 and was knocked out by Hulkenberg to leave him eleventh on the grid, just ahead of the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi.

A dominant Fernando Alonso won on his Ferrari debut in Bahrain on Sunday, leading home team mate Felipe Massa by 16 seconds to earn 25 world championship points.

Lewis Hamilton was third for McLaren, with early leader Sebastian Vettel fourth after exhaust problems on his Red Bull. The returning Michael Schumacher was sixth.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has called on everyone at the Scuderia to give their absolute all this season to help ensure the Prancing Horse returns to winning ways.

Ferrari struggled in 2009, but now there is a fresh sense of optimism and the form of the new Ferrari F10 in winter testing has been strong. Indeed new boy Fernando Alonso has already described it as the ‘best car he has ever driven’ and Montezemolo is convinced they can strike back.

“I want to thank you for what you’ve done during the winter,” Montezemolo said this week while talking to ‘his’ troops. “I haven’t forgotten the humiliation of the Abu Dhabi weekend, but now we know that our efforts paid off.

“We can look at the start of the season, knowing that we have a reliable car and we’re ready to tackle our competitors. We want to win and we’re sacrificing a lot for that, but this is our passion’s engine, our pride, our desire to demonstrate that we are the best team in the world.

“To reach this goal we need to be aware of the fact that a tenth of a second can make the difference: this is why I ask you all, nobody excluded, to give it your all, at every moment.

“We have a driver, Fernando [Alonso], who is on top of his career and has all the attributes to win; we have Felipe [Massa], completely renewed after what happened last year. We’re close to the best, but we want to be the best.

“We have a great team and we have to give out best to improve the car: Grand Prix after Grand Prix. We can’t leave any stone unturned: on the track, at home, at the works, everything has to be done the best possible way. This is what I’m asking of you.

“You’ve done some great work and I want you to continue like this. I’m convinced that you can do it and I hope I will see you again soon to thank you for the results, to enjoy the victories we merit together. Good luck from my heart: Forza Ferrari!”

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali meanwhile echoed those thoughts, adding in his own address that while much progress has been made, they have to keep pushing.

“We have a difficult season behind us and we have a season with strong competitors ahead of us, with many unknown factors,” he continued. “We’ve worked a lot during the winter and I want to thank you for what you have done: at the end of the last Championship we were really behind, now, after the tests in February, we can say that we picked up a lot. We’re in the top group, but not yet amongst the best. This has to be a stimulus, because we need to develop race after race.”