Sebastian Vettel takes pole position in Valencia

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel set a record lap time as he took pole position for Sunday's European Grand Prix in Spain. The world champion was in blistering form as he negotiated Valencia's street circuit on Saturday, posting a quickest lap of 1m 36.9 as the track temperature reached 45c.

Second fastest was Vettel's Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, while McLaren's Lewis Hamilton will start third on the grid ahead of the Ferrari pair of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.

Briton Jenson Button – who took the honours in Montreal a fortnight ago – starts in sixth for McLaren with Mercedes' Michael Schumacher in eighth.

It was Vettel's seventh pole in eight races and the 23-year-old German couldn't mask his delight at his performance. "A very good day for us, good to be on the front row for our team," said Vettel, who is primed to secure his sixth victory of the season.

Vettel won at Valencia last year and is cautiously optimistic that he will get a similar result on Sunday, saying: "It's quite a tricky circuit and so to get every single corner right is quite tough... It's a good point to start tomorrow."

Particularly pleasing for the Red Bull team is the fact that they've secured a 1-2 on the starting grid despite a new directive from F1's governing body, the FIA, informing teams that they will no longer be permitted to alter their engine maps - how the engine controls fuel usage - between qualifying and race day. It had been thought that such a directive might hinder Red Bull but that wasn't the case in the sweltering conditions in Spain.

But the temperatures had an adverse effect on the McLaren team during qualification, as Hamilton explained later: "After P3 [final practice] we were struggling a bit trying to switch the tyres on," said the 2008 world champion.

"But the guys did a great job on analysing some of the data that we had from there to improve into qualifying. I tried to improve on the last lap but I just baled out and hopefully have saved the tyres for the race."

Hamilton's McLaren teammate was in a less positive frame of mind after qualifying sixth for Sunday's race. "It's not very good," said Button, adding: "I had massive oversteer and couldn't get any rear grip. It's so frustrating. Maybe in the heat our balance isn't working."

Button trails Vettel by 60 points in the driver's standings and another victory for his German rival in Valencia would seriously dent the 31-year-old Briton's chances of repeating his 2009 world championship success. ·