Lewis Hamilton has claimed pole position for the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the impressive Yas Marina Circuit as the out-going champion absolutely dominated the hour of evening running, topping the time sheets in each of the three qualifying rounds by a significant margin.

Despite a small error on his first qualifying run that left him tenth on the provisional grid, Hamilton saved his best lap to the end of the ten minute pole shoot out, crossing the line an astonishing six-tenths of a second clear of the field. With his KERS advantage on the long 1.2km back straight, it is hard to see anyone other than Hamilton taking victory in the final race of the season.

Heikki Kovalainen’s woes deepened (*) when it emerged he will drop even further down the grid after suffering a gearbox failure during the ‘Q2′ segment.  The McLaren transmission cannot be repaired and therefore must be replaced for the race, incurring a five-place grid demotion for an unscheduled change. Kovalainen therefore drops from 13th to 18th.

Saturday Qualifying Results:

Position	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Weight (kg)
1	Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	1:39.873	1:39.695	1:40.948	658.5
2	Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1:40.666	1:39.984	1:41.615	663
3	Webber	Red Bull Racing	1:40.667	1:40.272	1:41.726	660
4	Barrichello	Brawn GP	1:40.574	1:40.421	1:41.786	655
5	Button	Brawn GP	1:40.378	1:40.148	1:41.892	657
6	Trulli	Toyota	1:40.517	1:40.373	1:41.897	661
7	Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:40.520	1:40.545	1:41.992	654.5
8	Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:40.558	1:40.635	1:42.343	664
9	Rosberg	Williams	1:40.842	1:40.661	1:42.583	665
10	Buemi	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1:40.908	1:40.430	1:42.713	661.5
11	Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	1:41.100	1:40.726		692
12	Kobayashi	Toyota	1:41.035	1:40.777		694.3
13	Kovalainen*	McLaren Mercedes	1:40.808	1:40.983		697
14	Nakajima	Williams	1:41.096	1:41.148		704
15	Alguersuari	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1:41.503	1:41.689		696.5
16	Alonso	Renault	1:41.667			708.3
17	Liuzzi	Force India	1:41.701			695
18	Sutil	Force India	1:41.863			696
19	Grosjean	Renault	1:41.950			710.8
20	Fisichella	Scuderia Ferrari	1:42.184			692.5

photo credit ©DPPI

Author: Jeff