Vettel
Sebastian Vettel waves to the crowd after tasking pole at the Korean GPReuters

After grabbing his sixth pole of the season, drivers' championship leader Sebastian Vettel is expecting a tight race in the Korean GP on Sunday.

The Red Bull star was at his best again in Yeongam, leaving the rest of his rivals well behind, with Lewis Hamilton having to settle for second in his Mercedes while Vettel's teammate Mark Webber was third quickest in qualifying. Webber, though, will start only 13th on the grid, after copping a ten-place penalty in the last race in Singapore.

Vettel said he expects the Mercedes cars to give the Red Bulls a run for their money on Sunday. "The pace that we saw from them (Mercedes) yesterday in the long runs was very good, so yes, it might be even tighter tomorrow (Sunday)," the German said. "With the two straights there are good chances to overtake, so let's wait and see what happens."

Hamilton will hope for a good start and will no doubt look to get ahead of Vettel right from the off. "We did as good a job as we could (in qualifying)," the former McLaren man said. "I felt like I got the most out of the car and perhaps there's always a little bit of room to improve but in general it's been a good weekend so far, so I really hope that tomorrow we're able to fight with them y'know? We'll wait and see."

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa timed sixth and seventh fastest respectively, but will start fifth and sixth owing to Webber's penalty.

Alonso will probably be hoping for rain to create some havoc, allowing him to take advantage of the conditions, because as of now the Red Bull is far superior to the Ferrari in terms of speed.

"I am not surprised at the outcome of this qualifying session, because in terms of pure performance, Saturday is always difficult for us and will continue to be so until the end of the season," Alonso said. "Usually, on Sunday, things go better and our aim is always to get to the podium, as has happened in recent races.

"This weekend seems harder than usual, because while up until now we have always had a good race pace, both yesterday (Friday) and today (Saturday) we suffered on the long runs and that means we must absolutely improve for tomorrow (Sunday).

"Given how we look in the dry, the rain could mix things up and in fact we have nothing to lose and even if there will be little time to adapt to it, we must be ready for this eventuality."

Where to watch

The race is scheduled for an 11.30 a.m. (IST) start with live coverage on Star Sports 2 beginning from 10.30 a.m. You can also catch the race live online by clicking the official link HERE.

Starting grid: Vettel, Hamilton, Grosjean, Rosberg, Alonso, Massa, Hulkenberg, Gutierrez, Raikkonen, Perez, Button, Ricciardo, Webber, Sutil, Di Resta, Vergne, Bottas, Maldonado, Pic, Van der Garde, Bianchi, Chilton.