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World champion Sebastian Vettel claimed his third straight pole position of the 2011 season on Saturday for the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver, who won both the opening races, lapped the Shanghai International Circuit in a time of one minute 33.706 seconds - a record for the 5.451-km track.

He qualified 0.715 seconds quicker than McLaren's Jenson Button, who starts immediately ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes GP's Nico Rosberg lines up fourth ahead of Ferrari pair Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, with Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari qualifying seventh.

Force India's Paul di Resta starts eighth ahead of Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi, with Renault's Vitaly Petrov completing the top 10.

The session proved something of a disaster for Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber, however, with the Australian knocked out in the first 20-minute segment.

Red Bull sent Webber out on a set of harder compound prime tyres but he had no time to complete a second flying lap and, as a result, lines up a lowly 18th.

Michael Schumacher was another driver to suffer a disappointing session, with the seven-time world champion qualifying down in 14th place.

Smooth

Vettel, who having taken the chequered flag in both Australia and Malaysia is chasing a hat-trick of wins this weekend, said: "Yesterday was very good, a strong day and a lot of laps, so we were very happy with our pace. Today was smooth.

"I was as happy as I can be in Q1 and Q2, and in Q3 we were able to get more out of the car again. I was very happy with the lap I did.

"But it all starts again from zero tomorrow. I'm very happy with the team and the way we all remain focused, but tomorrow is a new day."

Button was also delighted with his best qualifying performance of the season, saying: "We're in a good place for the race. I look forward to it here, it's always a good place for a race.

"We made some good changes and the car was a lot more consistent to drive. We extracted what we could out of it today."

Hamilton appeared more downbeat, having been outqualified by his team-mate for the first time this season.

He said: "We need to make some more steps forward, but I think there's some good things in the pipeline. We're doing our best to catch up."

Petrov failed to take part in the final 10-minute session after suffering a car failure towards the end of Q2 and pulling off the track - the Russian having posted the fourth quickest time.

His problem led to the session being red-flagged with just two minutes remaining. When it recommenced, a number of drivers anxious to make Q3 jostled for position as they sought to start their flying laps before the chequered flag fell.

Di Resta only just squeezed across the start-finish line but was rewarded with the best qualifying result of his F1 career to date - the Scottish rookie also celebrating his 25th birthday on Saturday.

Schumacher failed to make the cut after an error on his flying lap in Q2 but a far bigger shock was the earlier exit of Webber, who ran Vettel close in first practice on Friday but who has again suffered KERS problems.

The problem with the power boost on Webber's car limited his running in Saturday's final practice session, in which Vettel yet again topped the timesheets.

Webber began qualifying with his KERS system switched off, but looked to have the pace to make it through to Q2.

Switch

Red Bull were confident he had the pace to progress without the need to use the softer, quicker, option tyre but he only managed to complete one lap on the harder compound.

He could only look on during the closing moments as first Schumacher and then Williams rookie Pastor Maldonado improved their times to leave him in the drop zone.

Meanwhile, Adrian Sutil (Force India) qualified 11th ahead of Sauber pair Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi and then Schumacher.

The Williams of Rubens Barrichello was 15th, with team-mate Maldonado 17th, while Nick Heidfeld was also a victim of team-mate Petrov's exit as his sole flying lap could place him no higher than 16th.

The usual teams line up behind Webber with Lotus driver Heikki Kovalainen the best of the bottom six, one place and half a second ahead of team-mate Jarno Trulli.

Virgin drivers Jerome D'Ambrosio and Timo Glock line up 21st and 22nd, ahead of Hispania Racing's Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan.

Times

1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull 1:33.706

2. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 1:34.421

3. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1:34.463

4. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 1:34.670

5. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 1:35.119

6. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:35.145

7. Jaime Alguersuari (Spain) Toro Rosso 1:36.158

8. Paul Di Resta (Britain) Force India 1:36.190

9. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland) Toro Rosso 1:36.203

10. Vitaly Petrov (Russia) Renault no time

11. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India 1:35.874

12. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Sauber 1:36.053

13. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Sauber 1:36.236

14. Michael Schumacher (Germany) Mercedes 1:36.457

15. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Williams 1:36.465

16. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) Renault 1:36.611

17. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Williams 1:36.956

18. Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull 1:36.468

19. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Lotus 1:37.894

20. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Lotus 1:38.318

21. Jerome d'Ambrosio (Belgium) Virgin 1:39.119

22. Timo Glock (Germany) Virgin 1:39.708

23. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) HRT 1:40.212

24. Narain Karthikeyan (India) HRT 1:40.445