Vettel on shock pole for Red Bull

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Sebastian Vettel grabbed Red Bull's first ever pole position in a thrilling qualifying session in Shanghai.

Team-mate Mark Webber starts Sunday's race in third as the favourites Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello of Brawn GP were pushed into fourth and fifth.

Renault's Fernando Alonso, who has widely struggled for speed so far this season, will start from second.

World champion Lewis Hamilton was ninth for McLaren, who have shown signs of improvement with an updated car.

Starting in first and third at the Chinese Grand Prix represents a real achievement for Red Bull - considered one of the teams with fewer resources than the traditional powerhouses - as the 2009 season continues to throw any sense of Formula 1's conventions on its head.

It was generally anticipated that Brawn GP, who have dominated the first two races, would again put a driver on the front row. But the British-based team showed they have the best car on the grid that is not running with a double-decker diffuser - a controversial take on a key component at the rear of a car which Brawn, Williams and Toyota have used so far this season and was passed as legal by F1's governing body, the FIA, on Wednesday.

German Vettel coolly came first in the second session before triumphing in the final session with a time of one minute 36.184, triggering an explosion of joy from his mechanics and engineers.

"I am very, very happy," said the 21-year-old.

"It is unbelievable that we made it to pole position in the end. This morning we had a problem with the car. The mechanics did a very good job and fixed the car. Basically it is all down to them."

When the weights of the cars in qualifying were published, however, it emerged that fourth-placed Barrichello was running with 18kg more fuel than frontrunner Vettel.

That heavier load equates to an approximate deficit of 0.6 seconds, meaning that he was essentially three tenths quicker - and the fastest man in the field.