Shanghai, China (My Sportsbook) - Sebastian Vettel captured the pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix in dramatic fashion Saturday at Shanghai International Circuit.

Vettel came out late in the third and final qualifying session (Q3) and turned in only one lap at one minute, 36.184 seconds for his second career Formula One pole and the first for Red Bull Racing.

The German also made one lap only during the second qualifying session (Q2) due to reliability concerns of the car. He was quickest in Q2.

"I only had one run at the end of Q2 and one run at the end of Q3," Vettel said. "Obviously, we didn't need more, but it was not easy. We had a problem with the car, so we tried to run as little as possible. I'm very pleased and happy for the team."

Last September, Vettel made F1 history in the Italian Grand Prix by becoming the youngest pole sitter and race winner at age 21. He drove for Toro Rosso at the time.

Fernando Alonso from Renault qualified second with a time of 1:36.381. The two-time world champion will start on the front row for the first since the Spanish Grand Prix one year ago.

"I think it's been a strange weekend for us with a completely new car," Alonso said. "We are extremely happy with the result for sure."

Vettel's Red Bull teammate, Mark Webber, was third, giving Renault engines the top-three starting positions for the first time since the 1996 Portuguese Grand Prix with drivers Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Jean Alesi.

Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button from Brawn GP rounded out the top-five.

Button has won the first two races from the pole position this year. He has accumulated 15 points rather than 20, since the Malaysian Grand Prix two weeks ago was cut short less than 75 percent of its scheduled distance and half points were awarded. Button is five points ahead of teammate Barrichello.

Brawn's success this season has been attributed to their controversial "double decker" diffuser, which was ruled legal by the FIA Court of Appeal on Wednesday.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli finished sixth and Nico Rosberg from Williams was seventh. Kimi Raikkonen was the highest finishing Ferrari driver in eighth, while defending world champion Lewis Hamilton from McLaren somewhat improved his qualifying performance with a ninth-place finish. Rookie Sebastien Buemi from Toro Rosso completed the top-10.

Rather than the third race this year, the 2008 Chinese GP was the penultimate round of the F1 championship.

Hamilton put on a dominating performance in last year's race, as he started on the pole and led every lap except those when he pitted en route to his fifth victory of the season. Hamilton went on to clinch his first F1 world title by a single point over Ferrari-rival Felipe Massa in the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.

Massa did not advance beyond Q2 and will start 13th, while Robert Kubica from BMW Sauber failed to make it out of Q3 for the first time in his F1 career.

"The car had no grip and was not at all easy to drive," Kubica said. "I made a mistake braking in turn 12 which cost me my lap time."

Kubica will start 17th.

Timo Glock from Toyota qualified 14th, but transmission problems prior to qualifying led to a gearbox change in his car. He received a five-place grid penalty and therefore will start 19th.

Sunday's race is scheduled to begin at 3:00 a.m. (et).