Sebastian Vettel has said that he is happy with his performance in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

The reigning world champions will start from third, after Mercedes'S Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton locked out the front row.

The Red Bull driver told reporters: "I am quite happy to be honest. Yesterday and this morning I was really happy, and I think we improved the car.

"We took a different approach to the majority of people, using option tyres only. Whether that helps us tomorrow we have to wait and see. It will be a long race, it will be about tyre degradation.

"Mercedes are in front of us right now, and to be honest they had some long runs and didn't look too bad. On the long runs yesterday both Ferrari and Lotus were pretty competitive, so we can expect them to be very strong in the race."

Vettel, who has won two of the first four races of the 2013 season, leads the drivers' standings.