Abu Dhabi GP: Vettel on pole ahead of the McLarens, equaling Mansell's record

Sebastian Vettel took pole position in qualifying for the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi GP. The German beat the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button on the last lap. Ferrari back: Fernando Alonso fifth, Felipe Massa sixth.

In Q3 Button lapped in 1.39.013 after a check at the limit, immediately overtaken by Hamilton in 1.38.704. The Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber then entered between them with the German trailing by 42 thousandths and Alonso fifth at 7 tenths.

On the second run Button took the lead with 1.38.631 but Hamilton did better with 1.38.622. But Vettel, unstoppable, took yet another pole, the 14th this year, lapping in 1.38.481, equaling Nigel Mansell's record for pole starts in a season.

Fourth and fifth positions for Webber and Alonso while Massa found himself sixth ahead of the Mercedes GPs of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. The top 10 are closed by the Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta.

Sergio Perez (Sauber), Vitaly Petrov (Renault), Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) and Bruno Senna (Renault) were eliminated in Q2. Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) is also out in 15th position, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) and Pastor Maldonado (Williams). A difficult weekend for the Grove team: the Venezuelan will be penalized by 10 positions on the grid for having used the ninth engine this season while Rubens Barrichello was unable to lap due to technical problems and will start second from last, behind only his teammate .

18th and 19th position for the Team Lotus drivers, Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, 20th for Timo Glock with Virgin. Daniel Ricciardo is 21m or with the HRT ahead of the other Virgin of Jerome d'Ambrosio and teammate, Tonio Liuzzi.

F1 GP Abu Dhabi, Qualifying results and starting grid

Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m38.481s 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.622s + 0.141 3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.631s + 0.150 4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m38.858. 0.377s + 5 1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 39.058m0.577s + 6 1. Felipe Massa Ferrari 39.695m1.214s + 7 1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 39.773m1.292s + 8 1. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 40.662m2.181s + 9 1. Adrian Sutil Force India- Mercedes 40.768m2.287s + 10 11. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 40.874m2.440s + 12 1. Vitaly Petrov Renault 40.919m2.485s + 13 1. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 41.009m2.575s + 14 1. Bruno Senna Renault 41.079m2.645s + 15 1. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 41.162m2.728s + 16 1. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 41.240m2.806s + 17 1. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 41.760m3.326s + 18 1 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 42.979m3.197s + 19 1. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 43.884m4.102s + 20 1. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 44.515m4.733s + 21 1. Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 44.641m4.859s + 22 1. Jerome D ' Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 44.699m4.917s + 23 1. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 45.159m5.377s + 24 XNUMX. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosoworth no time