Sunny Valencia smiles down at Vettel during qualifying

It was an absolutely gorgeous day at the scenic Valencia Street Circuit in Spain, home of the 2012 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe. With most drivers taking their time and conserving the number of laps (and consequently their tires) owing to the rising track temperatures, Vettel put in a fiery final qualifying lap to take Pole position by almost 4 tenths of a second from McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. They take the front row on the grid followed by Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean who also put in some fantastic laps before being upstaged in the final seconds of Q1. Lotus' Kimi Raikonnen drove a calm and collected qualifying lap to finish in 5th spot followed by the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. Both Force India drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta also finish in the top 10 along with McLaren's Jenson Button.

Here are the complete results from qualification.

The surprises of the afternoon came from the Ferrari duo of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa who failed to make it to the final qualifying session and Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber who failed to make it out of the first qualifying session. Webber will begin the race in 18th position. Timo Glock starts from the back of the grid after skipping qualification due to an upset stomach.

The European Grand Prix begins at 2:00PM Valencia time. Click here to see your local timing. In India, the race will be broadcast on Star Sports starting at 4:30PM.