Lewis Hamilton will start the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from pole position after topping qualifying for the seventh time this season.
The McLaren driver’s first Q3 lap of 1:40.63s proved 0.35s better than that managed by second fastest man Mark Webber.
Webber set his time on his second run, while team-mate Sebastian Vettel’s second effort left the championship leader 0.11s further adrift.
There was post-session drama Vettel, who was asked by his team to shut down his RB8 on his in-lap. He was later disqualified from the session CLICK HERE for report.
The German had earlier completed just one flying lap in Practice 3 due to brake problems.
Pastor Maldonado was the surprise packet of qualifying in fourth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button and a lacklustre title contender Fernando Alonso. Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean completed the top 10.
An unsafe pit release involving Alonso and Grosjean was investigated by stewards after the session, with no action taken.
Further down the order, Force India and Sauber both failed to make Q3 with their entries, while Michael Schumacher missed the top 10 cut-off for the second consecutive weekend.
See below for the full qualifying result
|
Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
Laps |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:41.497 | 1:40.901 | 1:40.630 | 15 |
| 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:41.933 | 1:41.277 | 1:40.978 | 17 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel* | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:42.160 | 1:41.511 | 1:41.073 | 16 |
| 4 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:41.981 | 1:41.907 | 1:41.226 | 22 |
| 5 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:42.222 | 1:41.532 | 1:41.260 | 20 |
| 6 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:42.342 | 1:41.873 | 1:41.290 | 20 |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:41.939 | 1:41.514 | 1:41.582 | 17 |
| 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:41.926 | 1:41.698 | 1:41.603 | 17 |
| 9 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:41.974 | 1:41.846 | 1:41.723 | 17 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:42.046 | 1:41.620 | 1:41.778 | 24 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:42.579 | 1:42.019 | 16 | |
| 12 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:42.624 | 1:42.084 | 17 | |
| 13 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:42.572 | 1:42.218 | 16 | |
| 14 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:42.735 | 1:42.289 | 14 | |
| 15 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 1:43.298 | 1:42.330 | 18 | |
| 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:43.582 | 1:42.606 | 17 | |
| 17 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 1:43.280 | 1:42.765 | 14 | |
| 18 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 1:44.058 | 9 | ||
| 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1:44.956 | 11 | ||
| 20 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:45.089 | 10 | ||
| 21 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1:45.151 | 11 | ||
| 22 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:45.426 | 9 | ||
| 23 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1:45.766 | 8 | ||
| 24 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1:46.382 | 9 |
* Vettel will start Rear Of Grid
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Abu Dhabi Race Guide
