Hamilton storms to pole

It still is, going into Sunday but McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, a world champion himself, overshadowed the championship contenders to seize pole position for the Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the picturesque Yas Marina Circuit on Saturday.

The Briton, set a blistering 1:40.630 seconds in the opening minutes of Q3 and that time turned out to be hard to beat. Hamilton was a full second ahead of Vettel and the rest of the top 10.

The closest who came to the McLaren driver was Red Bull's Mark Webber. The gritty Aussie came into the 1:40s but still a shade off the former. Webber logged a time of 1:40.978 seconds.

It was the 25^th pole of Hamilton's career. Despite topping the first free practice on Friday and the third free practice on Saturday, Hamilton had felt that his MP4-27 didn't have the pace to top qualifying.

But Hamilton, who took pole in the inaugural race in 2009, had the legs over the Red Bull in the qualifying shootouts. Hamilton was second here in 2010 before winning it last year. He had to retire in the first race in 2009.

Vettel, who is gunning for a record fifth win on the trot this season, was third with a quickest lap time of 1:41.073, a full second down on Hamilton. The German and Alonso brought down the chequered flag on the shootout but could not best Hamilton's time.

Alonso has all the work to do on Sunday to keep his title chances alive after qualifying seventh on the grid. The Spaniard is 13 points adrift with three races remaining in the season. Alonso had a time of 1:41.582 seconds.

A surprise fourth was WilliamsF1's Pastor Maldonado with a time of 1:41.226 seconds. Kimi Raikkonen was fifth quickest for LotusF1. The Finn, nicknamed the ‘Iceman,' logged a time of 1:41.260 seconds.

McLaren's Jenson Button will line-up sixth on the grid after a time of 1:41.290 seconds. Nico Rosberg was eighth quickest for Mercedes with a time of 1:41.603 seconds. Ferrari's Felipe Massa was ninth with a timing of 1:41.723 seconds, while LotusF1's Romain Grosjean rounded off the top 10. Grosjean had a time of 1:41.778 seconds.

Raikkonen was out on the track first in Q3 and set the best time but Hamilton was quick to top the timesheets. And that time stayed.

Maldonado was up to third during the final minutes but dropped down to fourth.

Qualifying got going with track temperatures of 30 degrees and some of the big guns had excursions off the track in Q1. Hamilton braked too hard and went off at the left-hander Turn 12 but recovered to top the timesheets with eight minutes left.

Then, Vettel's RB8 kissed the barriers on the left exit and it is possible that the right side of his car suffered some damage. Hamilton finished Q1 with a time of 1:41.497 seconds followed by Rosberg, Webber, Alonso, Massa, Maldonado, Grosjean, Vettel, Raikkonen and Button.

Starting grid


1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 2. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 3. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull - Renault 4. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Williams - Renault 5. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Lotus - Renault 6. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 7. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 8. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 9. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 10. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus - Renault 11. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India - Mercedes 12. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Sauber - Ferrari 13. Paul Di Resta (Britain) Force India - Mercedes 14. Michael Schumacher (Germany) Mercedes 15. Bruno Senna (Brazil) Williams - Renault 16. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Sauber - Ferrari 17. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 18. Jean-Eric Vergne (France) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 19. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Caterham - Renault 20. Charles Pic (France) Marussia - Cosworth 21. Vitaly Petrov (Russia) Caterham - Renault 22. Timo Glock (Germany) Marussia - Cosworth 23. Pedro de la Rosa (Spain) HRT - Cosworth 24. Narain Karthikeyan (India) HRT - Cosworth

• Abu Dhabi