A conspiracy within Red Bull? That's unlikely. Even if they do have a preference for Vettel, they still want Webber to do as well as possible for the constructors championship.

I don't understand why RB would jeopardise their shot at a constructor's title by hampering Webber.

So the result of the Malaysian Grand Prix:

1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Jensen Button
3. Nick Heidfeld

Mark Webber had a fantastic 2nd half of the race, coming 4th, could have possibly taken third had their been another lap or two.

Vitaly Petrov had a funny crash a couple laps from the end - went wide on the exit to a corner, and cause it rains heaps in Malaysia, all around the track they got these massive drains (covered), so he's gone wide into the rough stuff and gone to go back on the track full speed, hit this drainage cover (which must be a speedbump looking thing) gotten about 2 meters of air, crashed back down to earth on all for wheels...and his steering wheel has come right off...so he had no option to pull out, and he's gone and rolled off the track into the 150m sign. Funniest bit of commentary to go with it too:

David Couthard: "Mika Häkkinen was known as the flying fin, Petrov must be now known as the Rudderless Russian"

That's Robbie Slater quality :lol:

I don't think Petrov was in a serious position, he was late teens position from recolection.

Mark Webber had a fantastic 2nd half of the race, coming 4th, could have possibly taken third had their been another lap or two.

Why did Webber do a 4 stopper where Vettel only does a 3 stop?

Is it me, or does Martin Brundel sound like Richard Hammond from Top Gear?

Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button
Sebastian Vettel, centre, beat Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button into second and third on the grid. Photograph: Adi Weda/EPA

Sebastian Vettel stormed to his third pole position of the season and the 18th of his career and immediately said: "The race will be easy tomorrow."

OK, the German was really talking his tyre choices but he could well have been talking about the race itself because after another scintillating weekend, in which he also topped all three practice sessions in Shanghai, the world champion's confidence has never been higher.

Jenson Button will be second on the grid for Sunday's race, his best qualifying performance of the year, while Lewis Hamilton will start in third.

But there was misery for Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber, who failed to get into the second qualifying round after tyre and electrical problems. He will start back in 18th place.

For the third time in as many races, Paul di Resta out-qualified his Force India running mate Adrian Sutil. And he showed an Ayrton Senna-like quality in the way he nipped out for a late run to nip into Q3 with only seconds remaining.

Sutil, who was 11th, just missed out on the final shoot-out. He has raced in 73 Grands Prix while this is the British driver's rookie season. Di Resta will start in eighth place.

There were more, predictable contrasting fortunes with Mercedes. Nico Rosberg qualified in fourth, 10 places ahead of his team-mate Michael Schumacher, who at one point looked to be struggling to get into Q2.

But, once again, Vettel is the main man. He said afterwards: "I'm very happy with the way the weekend has gone. But it is a shame for Mark, who has had a tough few days.

"Obviously we did it again but I try to remind myself and the team that every time is tough. It wasn't straightforward, in Q2 I had a bit of a mistake but in Q3 we improved. It all starts form zero again on Sunday. All it is is eight metres [in front of Button on the grid].

"We are as happy as we can be with the car, we had good long runs on Friday so have reason to feel good. Sunday is a new day."

The most sought-after seat in Formula One belongs to Red Bull's Mark Webber. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton has been linked with it and so has Nico Rosberg from Mercedes. But Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, has insisted that it is not up for grabs, even though Webber will be 35 this summer and is only on a year-to-year agreement.

"I cannot imagine a driver who wouldn't want to be in the car," Horner said. "But we are really happy with the two drivers. Seb [Sebastian Vettel] is on a long-term agreement [until 2014]. And we agreed with Mark last year to take one step at a time.

"It depends not just on his competitiveness, but on his desire and motivation. It is a gruelling calendar and it is important to have that desire burning within you, which Mark still has. We are only entering race three but a lot of people are already focusing on next year."

This will be a difficult year for Webber following his narrow failure to win a first world championship last year, when his relationship with the team was often strained. But Horner, who will sit down with the Australian in the summer to discuss the future, said: "Mark has made it quite clear he wants to finish his career with Red Bull. He has no desire to go to another team and while he is delivering we have no desire to change. The driver line-up we have is a very strong one but it is much too early to be talking ... there is a lot of racing still to go. Mark is in great shape and is driving arguably better than he ever has. He has got by far the toughest team-mate sitting alongside him and he has responded to that really well."

Red Bull have been targeted by agents representing other drivers. "Drivers' managers wouldn't be doing their job if they weren't knocking on our door," Horner added. "But we are very happy with the two drivers we have. The dynamics within the team work well with the two of them. They are both hard workers and focused and delivering. They are at different stages in their careers."

Predictably, though, it is Vettel who remains the favourite to win Sunday's Chinese grand prix after finishing top of both of Friday's practice sessions. That would make it six wins out of seven for the young German. Should he be victorious, he would also become the first driver since Michael Schumacher in 2004 to win the first three races of a season.

"We found a good rhythm and we're happy with the car," Vettel said. "There's still a lot to do on Sunday, so we'll look where we can improve. But today we had no big issues."

In the afternoon session Vettel was closely followed by the McLaren pair of Hamilton and Jenson Button. Webber was 10th. Britain's third driver, Force India's Paul di Resta, had a frustrating day, with fuel problems ruling him out of the second session.

The Mercedes pair of Rosberg and Schumacher were fourth and fifth respectively. Ferrari's Felipe Massa clocked the sixth best time and Force India's Adrian Sutil was seventh ahead of the Renault pair of Nick Heidfeld, who spun into fences in both practice sessions to reduce his practice time, and Vitaly Petrov.

Reports that Ferrari may be ready to withdraw from Formula One can be taken with a thick pinch of salt, despite remarks made by their president Luca di Montezemolo in the German magazine AutoBild. Di Montezemolo had complained that the sport has become too artificial, and added "a steering wheel is now a computer covered in buttons and the fans no longer understand".

That was possibly the funniest pit stop ever by Button. Alguesari lost a tire earlier too...might be an interesting race for a change.

Excellent battle between #1 & 2 - Vettel and Hamilton, vettels having radio problems and been told he can't come in for fresh tires - he's only done two stops