After a relatively low-key start to the weekend, Sebastian Vettel stunned the paddock in qualifying.
McLaren seemed to have got the better of Red Bull on the Yas Marina circuit but the double World Champion produced a storming late effort in qualifying to take his 14th pole position of the season. He thus equals Niger Mansell’s record of 14 poles in a season.
Lewis Hamilton was 2nd fastest, 0.1s behind the German. Button was third with Webber fourth.
How the session panned out :
Q1
The track opened at sunset for the first segment of qualifying. Cars quickly came out of the pits to bank a time in. Less than three minutes into the session, only four cars were left in the pits: the two McLarens, Massa’s Ferrari and Barrichello’s Williams.
Mark Webber set the early benchmark but soon lost it out to Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso. They all stayed out for a couple more laps and the order was slightly shuffled as Hamilton took over at the front with Webber up to 2nd.
Button then found more speed and stormed at the front. But Hamilton was on a hot lap and reclaimed the lead. In the meantime, Webber sneaked 2nd place to split the McLaren pair. When they pitted, Hamilton was leading from Webber, Button and Vettel.
With five minutes remaining, Rubens Barrichello was yet to leave the pits and didn’t look about to do so. As a reminder, the Brazilian only completed five laps in practice previously, having been plagued by mechanical problems. He didn’t make it out in time and was effectively eliminated before the end of the session.
The other drivers eliminated were Kovalainen, Trulli, Glock, Ricciardo, d’Ambrosio and Liuzzi.
Q2
Alguersuari and Buemi were first to leave the pits. The rest of the field quickly followed their path.
Just like he did in Q1, Mark Webber set the benchmark. Both Vettel and Hamilton went faster than him and dipped under the 1’39 barrier. Vettel was on a second hot lap when the session was red flagged – a bollard had been taken down and was lying in the middle of the track.
The session soon restarted and Massa opened the road. Yet to post a time, Nico Rosberg joined him on track. Webber was next to come out. The Australian moved up to third place.
With just under two minutes left, the top seven were all in the pits.
Pérez, Petrov, Buemi, Senna, Alguersuari, Kobayashi and Maldonado missed the cut.
Q3
McLaren set the ball rolling for the pole shootout. Lewis Hamilton won the first round, albeit by a narrow margin as Vettel was only 0.042s slower on his first attempt. Webber was third fastest with Button fourth.
In the meantime, Rosberg did come out but didn’t complete a lap. Schumacher, Sutil and di Resta, on the contrary, stayed in the pits.
With just under two minutes remaining, all ten cars were on track.
It was once again extremely close between the frontrunners. Both McLarens improved and looked set for a front row lock out but Sebastian Vettel made a stunning late effort to snatch pole position by almost two tenths of a second.
Hamilton will line up alongside him on the front row. Button and Webber will share the second row. The third row will be all Ferrari with Alonso and Massa. The fourth row will be made up of the Mercedes of Rosberg and Schumacher. Finally, the fifth row will be shared by Sutil and di Resta.
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Q1 time | Q2 time | Q3 time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Renault | 1.40.478 | 1.38.516 | 1.38.481 |
| 02 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren Mercedes | 1.39.782 | 1.38.434 | 1.38.622 |
| 03 | Jenson Button | McLaren Mercedes | 1.40.227 | 1.39.097 | 1.38.631 |
| 04 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Renault | 1.40.167 | 1.38.821 | 1.38.858 |
| 05 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1.41.380 | 1.39.058 | 1.39.058 |
| 06 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1.41.592 | 1.39.623 | 1.39.695 |
| 07 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 1.41.120 | 1.39.420 | 1.39.773 |
| 08 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 1.42.605 | 1.40.554 | 1.40.662 |
| 09 | Adrian Sutil | Force India Mercedes | 1.40.595 | 1.40.205 | 1.40.768 |
| 10 | Paul di Resta | Force India Mercedes | 1.41.064 | 1.40.414 | -.—.--- |
| — | ---------------- | --------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Sauber Ferrari | 1.41.311 | 1.40.874 | |
| 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Lotus Renault GP | 1.40.955 | 1.40.919 | |
| 13 | Sébastien Buemi | Toro Rosso Ferrari | 1.41.737 | 1.41.009 | |
| 14 | Bruno Senna | Lotus Renault GP | 1.41.391 | 1.41.079 | |
| 15 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso Ferrari | 1.41.386 | 1.41.162 | |
| 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber Ferrari | 1.41.613 | 1.41.240 | |
| 17 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams Cosworth | 1.42.258 | 1.41.760 | |
| — | ---------------- | --------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| 18 | Heikki Kovalainen | Team Lotus Renault | 1.42.979 | ||
| 19 | Jarno Trulli | Team Lotus Renault | 1.43.884 | ||
| 20 | Timo Glock | Marussia Virgin Racing Cosworth | 1.44.515 | ||
| 21 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT F1 Cosworth | 1.44.641 | ||
| 22 | Jérôme d’Ambrosio | Marussia Virgin Racing Cosworth | 1.44.699 | ||
| 23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT F1 Cosworth | 1.45.159 | ||
| 24 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams Cosworth | -.—.--- |