Red Bull's Sebastien Vettel grabbed his 14th pole of the season in Abu Dhabi to equal Mansell's 1992 record

Sebastien Vetting took his 14th pole of the season in Abu Dhabi and equaled Nigel Mansell's 1992 record of most poles in a single season. The session started with Hamilton topping final practice and both Q1 and Q2 of the qualifying session but as usual Vettel pulled out his Red Bull's Q3 magic much to the dismay of Hamilton McLaren. Hamilton posted overall fastest lap time on his Q2 stint with a 1:38.434 but his performance faded in Q3 shootout in which he lapped 1:38.622 while Vettel pulled out a 1:38:481 which was the fastest of the Q3 and to seal the pole.

Button came in 3rd and Webber 4th fastest. Ferrari's of Alonso and Massa were followed by the Mercedes of Rosberg and Schumacher and the Force India's Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta to complete the Top10.

Vettel said "I'm pretty pleased. Yesterday I wasn't very happy with my own performance and with the car and I didn't feel that comfortable. Today was much better straightaway when we went out this afternoon, but this evening when the sun went down, I had a much better feeling and the car was more together. It came in my direction and helped us. McLaren looked strong throughout the weekend, but I thought if I get everything right then in Q3 then we might have a chance (for the pole) and that's the way it came for us. I'm very pleased with the pole and it's a very special one to equal Nigel Mansell as well. It's a fantastic year and it's not over yet, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

Hamilton said "It would be nice to have had pole position, but that Red Bull, as always, is very quick in Q3! Still, we've got our car to a point where it works particularly well on certain tracks, and we always seem to go well here. To be as competitive as we've been this weekend is very encouraging - we're on the front row so we can have a good race from there. And, for the first time in quite a while, my long-run pace was pretty good too, and I think we had more fuel on board than some of the other teams. I feel really good about tomorrow, in fact. I hope I have a good start - I really want to get into Turn One first. But, if I can't, I'll follow Sebastian [Vettel] as closely as I can, I'll try my hardest not to let him get more than a second ahead, and I'll try to get ahead through the DRS zones. Last year I started second but braked early into Turn One and let Sebastian have the corner. I've just told him that's not going to happen tomorrow, though."

Button said "I haven't really been able to find a balance that suits me perfectly this weekend. The car changed quite a lot for qualifying. In practice I'd been struggling with the rear end; but, during qualifying, I suddenly had great rear grip and masses of understeer - so the car felt completely different to me. Obviously, there's only a certain number of things you can do during the qualifying session to counteract that, so we used everything we could to make the car work reasonably well, and I felt much happier as a result. "Third isn't a bad place from which to start - hopefully we'll get one over on the Red Bulls tomorrow."

Qualifying Results - 2011 Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuit.