Sebastian Vettel pulled out another last-gasp lap to steal pole position off Lewis Hamilton in qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Jenson Button was 3rd, just 0.009 seconds off his teammate. Mark Webber was 4th, with the Ferraris 5th and 6th. Here is what happened:
Q1
Both Williams cars will start on the back row
Rubens Barrichello failed to set a lap time in his Williams, after suffering an oil leak earlier on that day. He will start in 24th place alongside his teammate, who took a 10-place penalty for an engine change.
With this, there was no shootout to see what midfield car would be knocked out. Both Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher went out on soft tyres late on in Q1, but abandoned their laps when it became clear Rubens wasn’t taking part.
Heikki Kovalainen out-qualified Jarno Trulli for the 15th time this year, while Daniel Ricciardo did well to out-perform both his teammate and Jerome D’Ambrosio.
Drivers knocked out in Q1:
18) Heikki Kovalainen – 1:42.979
19) Jarno Trulli – 1:43.884
20) Timo Glock – 1:44.515
21) Daniel Ricciardo – 1:44.641
22) Jerome D’Ambrosio – 1:44.699
23) Vitantonio Liuzzi – 1:45.159
24) Rubens Barrichello – No time set
Q2
Schumacher passes a stray bollard
The Red Bulls and McLarens battled it out at the top of the timesheets for a while, before the red flags came out.
Felipe Massa, and then Jenson Button, had dislodged a bollard at Turn 8, and it landed on the racing line. When racing resumed, Hamilton remained ahead of Sebastian Vettel at the top.
Pastor Maldonado was 17th, and with his grid penalty, will start on the back row alongside his fellow Williams driver.
Both Force Indias made it through to Q3, while a mistake by Sebastien Buemi ensured he only qualified 13th.
Drivers knocked out in Q2:
11) Sergio Perez – 1:40.874
12) Vitaly Petrov – 1:40.919
13) Sebastien Buemi – 1:41.009
14) Bruno Senna – 1:41.079
15) Jaime Alguersuari – 1:41.162
16) Kamui Kobayashi – 1:41.240
17) Pastor Maldonado – 1:41.760
Q3
Vettel heads both McLarens for tomorrow's race
Q3 saw a fantastic shoot-out between the McLarens and Vettel, each driver just pipping the other after every lap.
A cooling track resulted in times being slower than in Q2. Lewis initially led Sebastian going into the final run, but Jenson Button threw himself into the mix by taking top spot on his final lap.
Hamilton then snatched the lead back, but only just – a gap of 0.009 seconds separated the McLarens. However, just when it looked as if it could be a McLaren front row lockout, Vettel smashed his Red Bull into pole position by 0.141 seconds.
It was his 14th pole position this year, equalling Nigel Mansell’s record from the 1992 season. However, it must be considered that there were only 16 races that year.
Interestingly, while Vettel and Button managed to go faster in Q3 despite the dropping temperatures, Lewis Hamilton felt that his Q2 lap was much better.
Mark Webber and the two Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa never challenged for pole, each finishing 4th, 5th and 6th. Nico Rosberg was 7th, with Michael Schumacher and Adrian Sutil considerably further back. Paul di Resta was the only driver not to set a time.
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