Vettel takes maiden Korean pole

Sebastian Vettel will start Sunday’s inaugural Korean Grand Prix from pole position.

The German came out of a thrilling battle for pole on top, thanks to a lap completed in 1’35’’585. Championship leader Mark Webber locked up the front row for Red Bull.

The two of them will be wary of the threat posed by Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton lining up behind them on the grid. Rosberg and Massa will share the third row. Button qualified in a rather disappointing 7th place and will line up with Renault’s Kubica on the fourth row.

Former teammates Schumacher and Barrichello will share the fifth row.

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

Q1

Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen was the first man out of the pits and was quickly followed by the rest of the field – bar the top teams’ drivers.

While Kovalainen posted a first time on the board, Alonso and Hamilton joined the fray. There were many changes at the front as the drivers got up to speed and improved their lap times.

Ten minutes in, Lewis Hamilton took over at the front with a 1’37’’517. Alonso had just started a flying lap and completed it in 1’37’’395 to move in front of the McLaren driver. He was soon challenged by the Briton and Hamilton retook the lead with a 1’37’’113. Vettel then moved up to P2 thanks to extremely fast S2 and S3. There was nothing to choose between the three of them as they were covered by 0.031s.

They didn’t improve in the final part of the session but safely made it through to Q2.

The same was not true for Tonio Liuzzi who joined the new teams’ drivers in the drop zone and was eliminated.

Q2

Things hotted up in this segment of qualifying. Only the ten fastest drivers would move on to the next step and, with the field looking so close, surprises could spring up.

This time, the title contenders quickly went out. Vettel stroke first but was beaten by the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa. He immediately reacted and reclaimed top spot, while his teammate Mark Webber slotted in P2.

Alonso moved up to P1 with his final attempt but his rivals found more improvement and demoted him to 5th place. Webber set the fastest time ahead of Vettel. Massa was third fastest with Hamilton fourth. Jenson Button was 7th.

Nico Hulkenberg missed the cut by a tenth of a second and was eliminated alongside Kobayashi, Heidfeld, Sutil, Petrov (who will drop five places on the grid following the penalty he was handed for causing a collision at the start of the Japanese GP), Alguersuari and Buemi.

Q3

With nothing to choose between the top teams, the battle for pole promised to be particularly close and enthralling.

Alonso threw down the gauntlet with a first lap completed in 1’35’’927. Vettel came close to match him with a 1’36’’000 and slotted in P2. Hamilton was third, Kubica fourth.

As Button had a moment on his flying lap, his teammate almost lost control of his McLaren entering the pitlane. He ran wide before recovering.

Alonso clocked a 1’35’’766 on his last assault but the Red Bulls stretched their legs and displaced him from the front row. Vettel set the fastest time and took pole position while Webber went 2nd fastest.