Shanghai, April 16 (IANS) Force India put up their best qualifying performance of the 2011 Formula One season as Paul di Resta (1:36.190) made it to Q3 for the first time and finished eighth fastest at the Chinese Grand Prix here Saturday.

Hispania's Narain Karthikeyan was the slowest in the 24 drivers' line-up.

Reigining champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull (1:33.706) continued his scintillating run as he secured his third straight pole position in as many races. The German went on to win the last two races from pole. McLaren's Jenson Button (1:34.421) and Lewis Hamilton (1:34.463) will start from second and third on the grid.

The day also belonged to Vijay Mallya owned Force India as the team put up an impressive show with British driver di Resta finishing among the top 10 drivers and teammate Adrian Sutil (1:35.874) narrowly missing the final session by recording the 11th fastest time amid overcast conditions.

"I could not have wished for more and it's nice to get into Q3," said Sutil.

"After missing the whole of free practice Friday we knew that it was going to be difficult this morning, but we have got a small upgrade here and it certainly improved the performance.

"Luckily, I did my quickest lap in the second running in Q1 as I just struggled a little bit with balance in the others. Our race pace seems to be not too bad so, fingers crossed, we can pick up some points again tomorrow as we have in the previous two Grand Prix."

Di Resta and Sutil have picked two points each from the earlier races and the team is at the seventh position in the constructor's championship.

Karthikeyan (1:40.445) in Hispania, however, managed to sneak in under the 107 percent time rule but was again slower than his teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi (1:40.212) and will start Sunday's race from the back of the grid.