Vettel steals pole in Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull saved his best for the last to grab a record-equalling 14th pole position of the season at the Yas Marina Circuit at the Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday.

The 24-year-old German upstaged McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button who had dominated practice with a final burst in the dying seconds of the final qualifying session by clocking the fastest lap of one minute 38.481 seconds.

Button raised the bar to 1:38.631 but was eclipsed by his team mate Hamilton who clocked 1:38.622 almost immediately only to see Vettel to better their times in a thrilling finale.

Vettel's team mate Mark Webber (1:38.858) will start alongside Button on row two, ahead of both Ferraris of Fernando Alonso (1:39.058) and Felipe Massa (1:39.695), while it was also two-by-two behind them with Nico Rosberg (1:39.773) ahead of Mercedes team mate Michael Schumacher (1:40.662) and Sahara Force India's Adrian Sutil (1:40.768) in ninth and Paul di Resta tenth.

"I wasn't happy with my car and myself this weekend. It's not easy to get it right all time," said Vettel after the race.

Double world champion Vettel's late show saw him equal Briton Nigel Mansell's record of 14 poles in a season in 1992.

"It's not surprising," said Vettel when asked how he managed to spring a surprise on Saturday. "We always expected to do well."

Asked about the prospects of winning on Sunday and put him on course to match Michael Schumacher’s record of 13 wins in a season, the twice winner in Abu Dhabi said: "It's a tricky place and long fight to the chequered flag. I'm looking forward to it."  

Following the 29th pole of his career, Vettel said: "I had to dig deep, especially after yesterday (Friday) because I wasn't happy with the car in general. Today it was better, but the conditions change from practice to qualifying with the sun going down and the temperature changing.
 
"In qualifying I had a much better feeling, especially on the soft tyres, but then the other difference here is to get everything into one lap because it's long.
 
"Although there's plenty of opportunity to gain time, if you take risks it's easy to make a mistake.
 
"I wasn't so happy with my first Q3 run, but I was in the second, and it was just enough to jump ahead of Lewis who has looked strong all weekend."
 
Asked whether he felt he had done enough when he leapfrogged Button late on, a disappointed looking Hamilton said: "No, but it's been a good couple of days and a big improvement from me compared to the last race (in India).
 
"But that was the fastest I could get out of the lap. It wasn't my best, with the one in Q2 much better."
 
As for Button, he complained of a variety of issues with his car as he said: "We know the pace is in the car.
 
"But it's about finding the right balance because I've not felt 100 per cent comfortable this weekend with that.
 
"I've been struggling with a nervous rear, and then in qualifying I was suffering with massive amounts of understeer.
 
"The car overall is working well, but it's not perfect, and Seb did a good job, put it on pole, so we'll have to challenge from behind."

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