- Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Qualifying
Webber snatches Abu Dhabi pole from Vettel
Mark Webber snatched pole position from team-mate Sebastian Vettel at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating him on the final run in Q3 by over a tenth of a second.
Vettel was slower than his team-mate in Q1 and Q2 but on his first run in Q3 looked as though he had found enough of an advantage to secure pole position. However, Webber managed a 1:39.957 on his final lap while Vettel failed to improve after lacklustre first and second sectors.
In Q1 and Q2 it looked as though Mercedes might mount a challenge but Nico Rosberg was nearly 0.5s shy of Webber in Q3 and Hamilton spun off on his final attempt, saying after the session that something broke on his car. Hamilton will still start fourth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in fifth. Kimi Raikkonen had qualified fifth but will now start from the back of the grid after he was excluded due to his his car failing a floor deflection test following damage from a kerb. Romain Grosjean was over 0.4s off the time set by his Lotus team-mate Raikkonen but will now start sixth in front of Felipe Massa, Sergio Perez and Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo.
After struggling all weekend, Fernando Alonso fell a tenth short of the cut off for Q3, but will still start tenth due to Raikkonen's penalty. He made a mistake on his first lap on fresh soft tyres and then tried again but fell short in the final sector, when the tyres were past their best. Paul di Resta and Jenson Button also missed out while Jean-Eric Vergne beat the two Williamses to 13th place.
Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil were the two midfield casualties in Q1 as both set times roughly 0.4s off their team-mate and paid for it with an early bath ahead of Q2. After showing strong pace in practice, Gutierrez will have been especially disappointed to miss the cut and will start 16th ahead of Sutil. Giedo van der Garde was fastest of the backmarkers ahead of Jules Bianchi, Charles Pic and Max Chilton. Bianchi also has a penalty for a gearbox change but will still start ahead of Raikkonen.
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