Hamilton flies to first non Red Bull pole of 2011

Red Bull are knocked off pole for the first time this year after a great lap for Lewis Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton answered his recent critics with a stunning lap during qualifying for the Korean Grand Prix, to take pole position, making it the first time Red Bull have failed to take pole all season. Hamilton pulled out a stunning lap to beat Sebastian Vettel by three tenths of a second. Jenson Button lines up 3rd for McLaren ahead of Mark Webber, with the Ferrari's fifth and sixth.


Massa beat Alonso for the 4th time in six races.

Hamilton has looked strong all weekend, in both the wet and dry conditions. The McLaren man looked emotional, and silent as he got out of his car. It was a superb lap from Hamilton, who may have begun now to answer his critics.

Last year's winner Fernando Alonso was outqualified by Felipe Massa again in the Ferraris, after the Spaniard made a mistake into Turn 1, meaning he will start sixth. Nico Rosberg, Vitaly Petrov, Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil round off the top 10, while problems for Michael Schumacher means he starts 12th.

Red Bull opted for an interesting strategy, meaning their drivers have not used the harder compund tyres, as they usually would do in Q1. They believe that the harder tyre, which is the soft, is the best tyre to be on, due to the softer compound, the super soft, degrading badly.