Vettel suffers Bahrain Q2 KO

Manama - Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel was eliminated in the second qualifying session on Saturday for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The German star was only 11th fastest in his Red Bull which ruled him out of the final top-10 shootout for Sunday's third round of the world championship.

Mercedes pair Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton were the top two qualifiers into the deciding session.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button.

"The Mercedes are out of reach -- this track suits them here," Vettel told the BBC.

"Hopefully we can do a good job at the moment and rescue some points this weekend. Things are going on in the background which haven't helped and we haven't done many laps here. You can have days where it's quite tight to get into Q3."

Starting grid for Sunday's Grand Prix following qualifying on Saturday (Note: Daniel Ricciardo was third in qualifying but will start Sunday's race in 13th place after picking up a 10-place grid penalty in Malaysia):

1st row

Nico Rosberg (GER/Mercedes)

Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes)

2nd row

Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Williams-Mercedes)

Sergio Perez (MEX/Force India-Mercedes)

3rd row

Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Ferrari)

Jenson Button (GBR/McLaren-Mercedes)

4th row

Felipe Massa (BRA/Williams-Mercedes)

Kevin Magnussen (DEN/McLaren-Mercedes)

5th row

Fernando Alonso (ESP/Ferrari)

Sebastian Vettel (GER/Red Bull-Renault)

6th row

Nico Hlkenberg (GER/Force India-Mercedes)

Daniil Kvyat (RUS/Toro Rosso-Renault)

7th row

Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Red Bull-Renault)

Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA/Toro Rosso-Renault)

8th row

Esteban Gutierrez (MEX/Sauber-Ferrari)

Romain Grosjean (FRA/Lotus-Renault)

9th row

Pastor Maldonado (VEN/Lotus-Renault)

Adrian Sutil (GER/Sauber-Ferrari)

10th row

Kamui Kobayashi (JPN/Caterham-Renault)

Jules Bianchi (FRA/Marussia-Ferrari)

11th row

Marcus Ericsson (SWE/Caterham-Renault)

Max Chilton (GBR/Marussia-Ferrari)