Lewis Hamilton secured his 25th pole position in Formula 1 after a dominant performance during the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Qualifying, in a session that saw his rivals completely helpless.
Hamilton banged in a 1:40.630 in early Q3 to secure pole; the 2008 World Champion didn’t even bother to go on a second run.
Mark Webber was the best of the Red Bull duo; the Australian went second quickest, thus pushing down his teammate Sebastian Vettel to third. Vettel will most likely be under investigation after stopping his car at the end of the session for a yet to be known reason.
Pastor Maldonado put on a brilliant performance to secure fourth position for his Williams team ahead of Sunday’s race, follwoed by Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren’s Jenson Button in fifth and sixth respectively.
Fernando Alonso was only seventh quickest for Ferrari, the Spaniard didn’t have the pace to challenge the front runners and will be having a hard time catching up with championship rival Vettel in tomorrow’s race.
Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean completed the remaining top 10 spots.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m40.630s 2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m40.978s + 0.348 3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m41.073s + 0.443 4. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m41.226s + 0.596 5. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m41.260s + 0.630 6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m41.290s + 0.660 7. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m41.582s + 0.952 8. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m41.603s + 0.973 9. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m41.723s + 1.093 10. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m41.778s + 1.148 Q2 cut-off time: 1m41.907s 11. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m42.019s + 1.118 12. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m42.084s + 1.183 13. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m42.218s + 1.317 14. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m42.289s + 1.388 15. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m42.330s + 1.429 16. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m42.606s + 1.705 17. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m42.765s + 1.864 Q1 cut-off time: 1m43.582s 18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m44.058s + 2.561 19. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m44.956s + 3.459 20. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m45.089s + 3.592 21. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m45.151s + 3.654 22. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m45.426s + 3.929 23. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m45.766s + 4.269 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m46.382s + 4.885