Sebastian Vettel celebrated an "unbelievable" pole position after emerging on top of the times in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.
The German gave his Red Bull Racing team its first pole position after beating Renault rival Fernando Alonso to the quickest time by just two tenths of a second.
Vettel, who had scored his first pole at last year's Italian Grand Prix, was delighted to be on top after a difficult practice session this morning.
He admitted his car had problems during qualiying, which meant he tried to run as little as possible.
"It was always last minute: I had only one run in Q1 on the hard tire and one run on Q2 with softs, and one with Q3 - as you see you don't need more," said Vettel.
"It was not easy. We had a problem wit the car so we tried to run as little as possible.
"The car is quick, as you can see. I had no concerns, but with only one lap if you run wide or make a mistake it means the end.
"I am very, very happy. Unbelievable we made it to pole position in the end. This morning was not ideal, but it seems the less I run in free practice the better in qualifying.
"I am happy with the team, all the mechanics are working really hard, they were working all night, so great job to them."
The youngest ever GP winner said he was relieved Alonso will not be using KERS this weekend, as it would have been an advantage at the start.
Vettel, however, is cautious ahead of tomorrow, as he is aware that it will be a long race.
"First of all I am happy that Fernando does not have KERS, here is a long straight so it can make a difference," said Vettel.
"We will see, it is a long race. We have to see how the car is after checking it in parc ferme. We check this for tomorrow but I'm confident the boys will do a very good job.
"It's a long race, 56 laps, and it's the best position to start but we have not scored any points yet. It is along way to go, anything can happen, we have to focus hard and see where we are tomorrow."