Vettel takes all-important pole in Abu Dhabi

Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, on Saturday evening, setting the scene up for a thrilling title showdown.

The German went slightly faster than Lewis Hamilton to give Red Bull its 15th pole of the season. The McLaren driver will line up alongside him on the front row, while Alonso and Button will share the second row of the grid.

Mark Webber will start from 5th place.

Let’s have a look at how the session panned out :

Q1

For the very last time this year, the 24-car field filtered out of the pits as the light went green.

Three of the four title contenders waited a few minutes before joining the track. In the meantime Lewis Hamilton topped the list with a 1’41’’245. He was soon leading from his teammate Jenson Button… but Alonso, Vettel and Webber were still to post a time.

Vettel’s first effort placed him in the top five, while Webber was down in tenth place. Alonso immediately jumped at the front with a 1’40’’991. Hamilton instantly reacted with a 1’40’’743, but Vettel managed to outpace him with a 1’40’’617.

With eight minutes remaining, Vettel was leading from Hamilton, Webber, Rosberg and Alonso.

Hamilton briefly reclaimed the top spot but Vettel found some more pace to edge him out by a couple of hundredths of a second. Fernando Alonso eventually beat them both with a 1’40’’170. As the top four spent the last minutes in the pits, Jenson Button took the opportunity to get another lap in but failed to improve and remained in fifth place.

Nico Rosberg set the 2nd fastest time under the chequered flag.

At the other end of the scale, Jaime Alguersuari beat his teammate Sébastien Buemi to 17th place. The Swiss was eliminated alongside the new teams’ drivers.

Q2

Alonso was one of the first to leave the pits at the start of this segment of qualifying, while the Red Bull drivers bided his time. They watched closely as he embarked on his first flying lap. By the time he completed it – and topped the list with a 1’40’’475 – both Vettel and Webber were on their way out of the pits.

Five minutes in, Jenson Button took over at the front with a 1’40’’267. He further improved it as the Red Bull drivers were about to complete their first timed lap. It was a slow effort from both of them and they slotted in P12 and P13. They were much quicker on the following lap: Webber moved up to P4 a few seconds before Vettel set the fastest time – a 1’39’’874.

Lewis Hamilton tangled with Ferrari’s Massa at the very end of Q2 but recovered well and went on to set the 2nd fastest time in the following lap. He was later demoted to P5 by Button, Rosberg and Webber. Alonso was 6th fastest.

Renault’s Robert Kubica couldn’t make the cut – it is the first time this season he didn’t make it through to Q3. He was eliminated alongside Kobayashi, Sutil, Heidfeld, Hulkenberg, Liuzzi and Alguersuari.

Q3

The tension was at his maximum as the title contenders readied themselves for a thrilling battle for the final pole position of the season.

Hamilton set the ball rolling with a 1’39’’582. Button, Alonso and Massa slotted behind him as Webber completed a relatively slow first lap. Vettel was the last to have a go and took P1 with a 1’39’’448. His teammate was up in P4.

As their rivals rejoined the track, the German kept pushing but could only shave a few hundredths of his mark. Both Hamilton and Alonso tried hard in their final effort but failed to better Vettel’s time. So it was another pole position for the young German… while his teammate was only fifth fastest.

Michael Schumacher out qualified his Mercedes’ teammate, setting the 8th fastest time, and will share the fourth row of the grid with Rubens Barrichello. Rosberg was ninth fastest with Renault’s Petrov tenth fastest.