Vettel claims 10th pole

Sebastian Vettel made it 10 poles for the season as he continues to close in on Nigel Mansell's Formula One record.

On a circuit supposed to be Red Bull's worst over the closing seven races of a one-sided campaign, the reigning champion smashed his rivals to grab top spot on the grid for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix.

Vettel blitzed the Monza track with a time of one minute 22.275 seconds to finish a full half second clear of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who lines up second for the fourth consecutive race.

Vettel is now just four short of Mansell's mark of 14 set in 1992, cementing Red Bull's unblemished record of claiming pole in every race this season.

In his career, Vettel now has 25 poles, eighth in F1 history, with only Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Jim Clark, Alain Prost, Mansell, Juan Manuel Fangio and Mika Hakkinen ahead of him.

Behind the front row, Hamilton's McLaren team-mate Jenson Button lines up third alongside the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, with Mark Webber fifth and a staggering 0.7secs adrift of team-mate Vettel.

Felipe Massa starts sixth in his Ferrari, followed by the Renault of Vitaly Petrov and Mercedes duo Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

Bruno Senna scraped into the top 10 with a stunning lap at the end of Q2, however, did not venture out in the last 10 minutes.

Paul di Resta was the unlucky recipient of Senna's flying lap, the Force India driver missing out on a place in the top 10 by a mere 0.006secs.

At least the Scot had the satisfaction of finishing ahead of team-mate Adrian Sutil, with the duo lining up 11th and 12th, the margin between them just 0.046secs.