Lewis Hamilton says that Sebastian Vettel was "untouchable" during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix.

11675 - Vettel was 'untouchable' - Hamilton

After the first runs in the final qualifying session both Hamilton and team-mate Jenson Button were within 0.2s of Vettel in second and third places, and eyeing McLaren's first pole position of the season. However, Hamilton aborted his final lap after locking up in to the Roggia chicane, and Vettel improved by another 0.3s to emphatically seal his tenth pole of 2011. When asked if pole had been there for the taking Hamilton said the Red Bull was too quick, and had set a time he would have been unable to match.

"I don't think so," Hamilton said. "I didn't have another half a second in the bag. I think perhaps we could have got another couple of tenths out of the car but I think, firstly, the guys did a fantastic job to bring the new components to the circuit. Clearly we're very competitive, both me and Jenson were able to be up here so that's a great step, but Sebastian was mega quick today."

Having topped the timesheets after first practice and looked like the quickest man in FP2, Hamilton admitted his hopes had been high ahead of Saturday's running.

"It did look like we would be quite competitive throughout the weekend but today, that last lap, that was untouchable for me."