Vettel takes pole, Hamilton second, Alonso third

F1 Grand Prix, GP Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuit

Sebastian Vettel has put his Red Bull on pole for the 10th time of the season. He did what he needed to do to keep his championship hopes alive. Lewis Hamilton is second, Alonso fourth. Mark Webber had some trouble in Q3 and failed to do any better than 5th.

Many cars choose to take the track as soon as the session begins, but it are the Toro Rosso cars who set the first times. Alguersuari is fastest, ahead of Buemi, and a minute later followed by Glock, Di Grassi, Trulli, Kovalainen and Heidfeld.

Lewis Hamilton is also out early, as he found he went the wrong way with set-up after FP2. His team have adjusted front suspension settings again towards the Friday set-up and Hamilton is eager to see if any more changes need to be made.

4 minutes into the session, Red Bull, Alonso and Button also take the track, only to find they are all slower on their first lap than Hamilton's quickest attempt thus far.

Just after the halfway mark, Vettel posts the fastest time, a tenth faster than Hamilton. Weber is third, Rosberg 4th and Alonso 5th. All top drivers are running on the harder tyre and complete several flying laps on a single set of primes.

5 minutes from the end of the session, Alonso puts himself on top of the timesheets again, topping Vettel's time by little more than a tenth. Jenson Button then took the track again for a single lap after his team fixed the vibration he was complaining about. It appears there was a slight issue with one of the brakes.

At the back of the pack, Alguersuari just managed to get into Q2, knocking out his teammate Sebastian Buemi. Along with him are Trulli, Kovalainen, Glock, Di Grassi, Senna, Klien.

Felipe Massa is the first to go out, closely followed by his teammate Alonso. On his first lap, Alonso is more than half a second quicker than his teammate, but the time is down on his quickest in Q1. 2 minutes later Button posts the fastest time, a 1:40.267.

Button improves again one lap later, another tenth quicker, but his teammate is struggling to complete a good lap. On his first he was struggling with traffic in S1, while on his second lap he outbraked himself at the end of the straight.

At the halfway mark, the Red Bulls post their first laps in Q2, Webber moving into P4 and Vetel into P1 with 1:39.874.

3 minutes from the end, Hamilton is still 17th, and at a certain moment had Massa pass him on the outside of turn 4. Hamilton initially chose not to back of but took the corner so direct that he knocked away the bollard on the inside of the turn.

Despite a late challenge, Kubica is not into Q3 for the first time this season. His teammate at Renault, Vitaly Petrov did manage to get through, albeit just in 10th place. Out along with Kubica are Kobayashi, Sutil, Heidfeld, Hulkenberg, Liuzzi and Alguersuari.

With Q2 rounded off, F1 is ready for the ultimate qualifying part of the season, with 4 championship contenders, a rather long lap and an unbelievably tight performance difference between the cars.

Jenson Button takes the lead in Q3, ahead of Hamilton, Alonso and Massa. Webber waits 2 minutes before going out, and Vettel adds another minute to that.

At that time, Hamilton posts his first time, setting a 1:39.582. Button is 3 tenths off, Alonso suddenly half a second off the leader's pace. Massa is 4th, Barrichello 5th.

Webber's first lap is only good for P3 but Vettel immediately puts his RB6 on pole. Both Red Bulls continue running on the same set of option tyres. Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes GP are all choosing for two stints in final qualifying.

All these drivers were queuing and blocking each other before they started their final lap, and Massa, the last of the pack managed to just stat his lap with less than a second on the clock as he crossed the finish line.

Webber meanwhile failed to improve, Vettel was safe on pole, and Hamilton put his car in second place. Alonso, who was in trouble after the first flying lap managed to move op to 3rd, evoking much joy at Ferrari's pitwall.