Qualifying: Hamilton secures 25th career pole

For the third successive season Lewis Hamilton will start the Abu Dhabi GP from the front row, although this time it will be from pole position

The McLaren driver had been the man to beat in Saturday's final practice but feared that his MP4-27 would not have the pace needed to beat the Red Bulls in qualifying.

That, though, didn't prove to be the case.

Hamilton put in a flying 1:40.630 to edge Mark Webber by 0.348s as the Aussie booted his team-mate and Championship leader Sebastian Vettel off the front row.

Vettel's woes, though, did not stop there as he failed to make it back into the pits after qualifying, stopping his RB8 on the side of the track.

Pastor Maldonado was fourth for Williams ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button while Chamionship hopeful Fernando Alonso could only manage seventh, 0.952s down.

Times

01 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:40.630
02 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:40.978 0.348
03 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:41.073 0.443
04 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:41.226 0.596
05 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1:41.260 0.630
06 Jenson Button McLaren 1:41.290 0.660
07 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:41.582 0.952
08 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:41.603 0.973
09 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:41.723 1.093
10 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:41.778 1.148
11 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:42.019
12 Sergio Perez Sauber 1:42.084
13 Paul di Resta Force India 1:42.218
14 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:42.289
15 Bruno Senna Williams 1:42.330
16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1:42.606
17 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:42.765
18 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:44.058
19 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1:44.956
20 Charles Pic Marussia 1:45.089
21 Vitaly Petrov Caterham 1:45.151
22 Timo Glock Marussia 1:45.426
23 Pedro de la Rosa HRT 1:45.766
24 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1:46.382

Source: Planet-F1