Hamilton flies to Abu Dhabi pole

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By Matt Beer    Saturday, October 31st 2009, 14:03 GMT

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Abu Dhabi GPLewis Hamilton claimed pole position for the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix by a crushing 0.7s margin over the Red Bulls.

McLaren driver Hamilton had dominated the early stages of qualifying - topping Q1 by half a second and Q2 by 0.3s. He then squandered his first Q3 lap by running wide at Turn 17, but regrouped and set a 1m41.773s next time around to take provisional pole from Rubens Barrichello (Brawn).

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber then made massive gains to jump from potential fourth row positions to first and second in the closing seconds. However Hamilton was already on a much faster final lap, and he duly put in a time of 1m40.948s to take his fourth pole of 2009.

An all-McLaren front row looked possible given the team's practice pace, but Heikki Kovalainen's car stopped with a transmission fault in Q2. Third at the time, he slipped to 13th on the grid.

Vettel, Webber and Barrichello remained in second to fourth positions, with new world champion Jenson Button fifth in the second Brawn.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli was a contender for pole early in Q3 but found himself edged down to sixth by the end, ahead of the two BMWs, which share row four for the team's final race. Williams's Nico Rosberg and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi completed the top ten.

Neither Ferrari made it into the top ten - making 2009 the first season since 1993 that the team has not managed a single pole. Kimi Raikkonen only narrowly missed Q3 in 11th place, but his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella was slowest of all - leaving Ferrari hard-pressed to overcome McLaren's two-point advantage in their battle for third in the Constructors' Championship.

It was an even worse session for Renault. Fernando Alonso could only manage 16th, so was eliminated in Q1 for the first time ever, while his team-mate Romain Grosjean had a spin on the way to 19th, behind the disappointing Force Indias.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2       Q3
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:39.873  1:39.695 1:40.948
 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:40.666  1:39.984 1:41.615
 3.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:40.667  1:40.272 1:41.726
 4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:40.574  1:40.421 1:41.786
 5.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:40.378  1:40.148 1:41.892
 6.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:40.517  1:40.373 1:41.897
 7.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:40.520  1:40.545 1:41.992
 8.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:40.558  1:40.635 1:42.343
 9.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:40.842  1:40.661 1:42.583
10.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:40.908  1:40.430 1:42.713
11.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:41.100  1:40.726
12.  Kobayashi    Toyota                (B)  1:41.035  1:40.777
13.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:40.808  1:40.983
14.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:41.096  1:41.148
15.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:41.503  1:41.689
16.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:41.667
17.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:41.701
18.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:41.863
19.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:41.950
20.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:42.184

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McLaren chairman Ron Dennis made a timely return to a Formula One paddock on Saturday, witnessing his prot?g? Lewis Hamilton dominate qualifying for the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The 62-year-old former long-time team boss began his exile earlier this year, apparently in a low-profile agreement with Max Mosley following the lie-gate scandal. Perhaps not coincidentally, Abu Dhabi is the first race since 1993 without Dennis' nemesis Max Mosley in charge of the FIA. Mosley's successor Jean Todt is also trackside this weekend.

While Dennis now heads up the McLaren sports car project, his successor as team principal was very happy with the performance put in by Hamilton.

?Lewis did a brilliant job, demonstrating prodigious speed, to secure pole position in dominant fashion in Abu Dhabi this evening,? explained Martin Whitmarsh.
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?We were relatively aggressive in terms of his fuel strategy, but we?ve certainly been more aggressive in a few other qualifying sessions this year and there?s therefore no doubt that his pace here is very genuine.?

The well oiled McLaren machine did not run completely according to plan however with Heikki Kovalainen?s MP4-24 grinding to a halt with a gearbox problem in the second round of qualifying leaving the Finn 13th on the grid.

?Heikki, too, would have figured at or close to the front had he not been hampered by a gearbox problem not of his making, but you can be well sure that he?ll be pushing as hard as ever tomorrow to make good progress from his P13 grid slot,? Whitmarsh concluded.