Hamilton takes pole for McLaren in Abu Dhabi F1 UPDATED

Lewis Hamilton has beaten the Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber to take pole for tomorrow’s F1 Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi.

Update: Vettel has been relegated to the back of the grid for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as he didn’t have enough fuel in his car for a fuel sample to be taken. Which changes the whole dynamic of tomorrow’s race – and the championship.

The last few Grands Prix have seen a resurgence of Red Bull to a dominant position, but Lewis Hamilton has overturned that in qualifying by beating both Red Bulls to take pole.

Behind Hamilton’s dominant display, Mark Webber took second place with team mate Sebastain Vettel only managing third after a difficult final qualifying where he managed to end up stranded at turn 18 after qualifying had finished.

Behind Hamilton and the Red Bulls it’s Pastor Maldonado in the Williams  and Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus, with Jenson Button only managing sixth place in his McLaren.

The Ferrari’s are in seventh (Alonso) and ninth (Massa), split by a decent effort from Nico Rosberg who put his Mercedes in eight with the top ten qualifiers propped up by Grosjean in the Lotus in tenth place.

As far as the championship goes, the loss of pole to Hamilton makes no difference to anything but Hamilton’s pride. If the grid standings play out then Red Bull will take the constructors championship tomorrow and Vettel will make it almost impossible for Alonso to catch him for the drivers title.

Let’s hope the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is a little more interesting than India last week.

By Cars UK