30ºC on air and 38ºC on track have welcomed the drivers for the qualifying, where Vettel was expected to get his third pole position on this track. The main rivals were his mate Webber and the Mercedes.
On Q1, most of drivers have tried to pass to Q2 doing a time with the medium compound, but soon we could see that there was too much difference between the soft and the medium. In fact, Romain Grosjean has been eliminated, the Frenchman has not completed any timed lap with the soft tyre. Max Chilton has been the slowest driver by far, and the first eliminated, 1.2 seconds behind his mate Jules Bianchi, who has done a brilliant performance ahead of both Caterham, he has finished on nineteenth. In Caterham, van der Garde has won the match to Pic this time. Jenson Button has been the fastest driver of this session, and the only one to pass to Q2 with the medium compound has been Sebastian Vettel.
In Q2, Vettel has showed his superiority. The battle to join Q3 has been very interesting, Gutierrez had some problems and the Mexican has done just one lap, being the first eliminated on P16, ahead of him, Bottas has done his best with the Williams, probably the worst car of the grid besides Caterham and Marussia. The Finnish has got the fifteenth position behind Jean Eric Vergne, Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta (those three drivers separated by less than one tenth of a second). Daniel Ricciardo has been eleventh. Vettel has set the best time of the weekend, ahead of Fernando Alonso, who has surprised with a good time.
In the start of Q3, drivers have left the pits with the medium tyre, but only Alonso has set a time on this run. Finally, it was a strategic battle. Vettel has been the fastest driver, beating his pole record of 2011 by some thousands of a second. Behind the German driver, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton have also chosen this strategy, meanwhile Mark Webber will start on fourth with the medium tyre. The Australian will have an interesting role to play tomorrow with this strategy.
| P | Driver | Team | Time | Compound |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1:24.119 | Soft |
| 2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:24.871 | Soft |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:24.941 | Soft |
| 4 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 1:25.047 | Medium |
| 5 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:25.201 | Soft |
| 6 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus | 1:25.248 | Soft |
| 7 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | 1:25.334 | Soft |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:25.826 | Medium |
| 9 | Sergio Pérez | McLaren | 1:26.153 | Medium |
| 10 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:26.487 | Medium |
| 11 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR | 1:25.519 | |
| 12 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 1:25.711 | |
| 13 | Adrian Sutil | Force India | 1:25.740 | |
| 14 | Jean Eric Vergne | STR | 1:25.798 | |
| 15 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:26.134 | |
| 16 | Esteban Gutiérrez | Sauber | 1:26.336 | |
| 17 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:26.577 | |
| 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 1:26.842 | |
| 19 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 1:26.970 | |
| 20 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | 1:27.105 | |
| 21 | Charles Pic | Caterham | 1:27.487 | |
| 22 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 1:28.138 |
