Qualifying
Qualifying was the same old tale as Vettel blitzed to an untouchable pole position in India, meaning nobody else has ever taken the top spot on a Saturday as he dominated by well over half a second from Nico Rosberg. Mark Webber brought the sister car onto the second row on the harder tyre, splitting the strategy ahead of the race as he took fourth. Mercedes took a step forward from practice as Rosberg flew onto the front row of the grid, less than a tenth ahead of teammate Hamilton. Both drivers felt they had managed to find the right setup, though Lewis lost a touch in the final corner with oversteer, but overall it looked promising for the race. Felipe Massa brought his Ferrari through to take fifth place in the closing stages of Q3 with a solid lap on the option tyres, even though he didn't hook up a perfect lap, and targeted Webber for the start of the race. Alonso struggled again to finish in eighth place, though he elected to take the harder compound tyres with Ferrari splitting the strategy for the race much as Red Bull did, feeling it would leave them with the high ground in the race and help the team achieve the best possible points for the championship. Kimi Raikkonen qualified better than he had in recent races with sixth on the grid and felt the car had improved from practice but still wasn't perfect, but their race pace is more promising. It was a disaster for Grosjean however as the team tried to get him through to Q2 using only the harder tyres and a single run, which backfired spectacularly, as the tight grid meant he was on the cusp at the end of Q1 where Felipe Massa pushed him into P17 and elimination as the clock ran out, making the race a tough proposition. Behind the leading Lotus, Sauber had another more typically split qualifying result as Hulkenberg smashed into the top ten for the fifth race on the bounce to beat the McLaren's, though he had concerns over the option tyres for the race. Gutierrez made Q2 but then finished at the bottom of it in P16, struggling to get comfortable with the car and find sufficient grip, and also launched over the kerb hard, distracting him and hurting his neck. McLaren closed out the top ten with Perez ninth and Button tenth, and were ultimately focussing more on strategy than grid position. Perez felt their long run pace was good and that the prime tyre could offer good opportunities if option runners pitted early, while Button was disappointed not to run the option tyre after it felt really great and he went fastest in Q1 with it, struggling for temperature on the primes by comparison, though he agreed it was likely the best strategic move. Torro Rosso just missed out on the top ten at the death, with Ricciardo pushed out to P11 at the end of Q2, which was disappointing but leaves him good tyre choices for the race. Vergne was less successful over one lap as he finished P14 but was generally pleased with a clean lap and felt they could fight for points. Force India were unable to make it into the top ten despite their efforts, with Di Resta taking P12 and Sutil P13, splitting the two Torro Rosso cars. Both drivers felt they dropped a couple of tenths on an ideal lap but that the car had improved and were in a decent position to fight for something from the race. Williams failed to make any impact on the midfield runners really, with Bottas taking P15 and Maldonado eliminated in Q1 to go P18. Both drivers suffered from traffic problems but Bottas felt it was where they were on pace, with Maldonado disappointed but optimistic of making up places in the race. Jules Bianchi struck at the back to lay down a lap just a tenth off Maldonado's Williams and beat both Caterham's to take P19, a tenth ahead of Van der Garde ahead of an opportunity for the race. Chilton was unable to make the same impact however and finished P22 as he struggled with balance again. With the two Caterham's sandwiched between the Marussia's in P20 and P21, Pic was just under four-tenths off his teammate Van der Garde as they struggled with traffic and tyre performance. Van der Garde was confident they had the race pace to beat Marussia however.