Vettel on pole again to equal Mansell's record

Sebastian Vettel breaks records as he inches the McLarens to pole in Abu Dhabi.

Sebastian Vettel took his 14th pole of 2011, equalling Nigel Mansell's record of fourteen poles in one season. Vettel narrowly beat Lewis Hamilton, who was favourite for pole after topping FP2 and FP3, as well as Q1 and Q2. Once again though, Vettel took it at the death with a brilliant lap of 1.38.481.

The McLaren's were pacy all through qualifying, and looked set for a front row lock out when Vettel took it from them. However, they still line up second and third, ahead of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso. Felipe Massa was more than 0.6 seconds slower than Alonso, as he qualified sixth. Mercedes and Force India shared the next two rows, asa everyone but Paul di Resta set a time in Q3.

Elation as Vettel takes pole again

Rubens Barrichello was very unlucky, as an oil leak in Q1 meant he couldn't go up, and he lines up last. However, his team mate Pastor Maldonado qualified 17th, but will take a 10-place grid drop after using one too many engines, meaning it is an all Williams back row.

Sergio Perez was 11th, while Toro Rosso were disappointed with 13th and 15th. Daniel Ricciardo beat his team mate, and Jerome D'Ambrosio's Virgin to qualify 21st.

Another Vettel pole, and the German will be looking to make it a hat-trick of Abu Dhabi wins tomorrow.