Vettel conquers 14th pole and equals Mansell record

A great battle for the pole position in Abu Dhabi gave Sebastian Vettel his 14^th pole position of the season, a number that equals Nigel Mansell’s record.

The German beat the two drivers from McLaren, which had to settle for second and third place ahead of the second Red Bull of Mark Webber. After being the fastest on both second and third practice, Hamilton was also quickest in Q1 and Q2. During Q3 he was the quickest after the first run, having at the time a 0.042s advantage over Vettel.

On the second visit to the track Button came from fourth to first , but was there for only a few second as Hamilton passed him right away to recover the provisional pole position. But there was still Vettel to come, who took the pole with a 1m38.481s beating Hamilton by 0.141s.

Behind Vettel and Hamilton, Button, Webber, Alonso and Massa filled the top six. The two Ferraris never seemed capable of threatening the fastest runners. Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher will start tomorrow’s race in seventh and eighth, while the two Force Indias from Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta completed the top 10.

Outside the top ten Williams continued its disastrous season as the team saw both of its cars following to last lane on the grid. Pastor Maldonado managed to be the 17^th fastest but because of a 10-place penalty for exceeding the eight-engine limit he was sent down the order. His team-mate didn’t come to the track with further engine issues.

The Force Indias were comfortably ahead of the usual rivals Toro Rosso and Sauber. Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari were 13^th and 15^th, while Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi were 11^th and 16^th. Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna struggled as predicted finishing in 12^th and 14^th.

Daniel Ricciardo had a sensational first qualifying lap which put him close to Kovalainen and ahead of the bottom team drivers. He would ultimately drop behind Trulli and Timo Glock.