Webber takes pole in another Red Bull front row

F1 Grand Prix, GP Korea, Korean International Circuit

Mark Webber has snatched pole position for the Korean GP, beating his teammate Sebastian Vettel in the closing seconds of qualifying. Behind the second consecutive Red Bull front row lock-out, Lewis Hamilton will start from third, ahead of Championship Leader Fernando Alonso.

Heikki Kovalainen is the first man on track and remains to be ntil having completed his first flying lap. Althogh the track is still a bit dusty, this may be a particlar advantage for the Finnish Caterham driver, as many drivers have already found it difficult to find space for a clean lap throughout each and every free practice session.

Both Lotus and Mercedes cars are out soon after that, with actually Grosjean hindering his teammate during his first flying lap. Raikkonen however managed to improve to first 11 minutes into the session. Massa at that time is second fastest, half a second ahead of his Ferrari team mate.

Sebastian Vettel waited a bit longer to get his lap in but on his third lap ot on track, he slashes the best time so far by 4 tenths. Button meanwhile joined the party at the top of the timesheets by posting second, ahead of Webber and Raikkonen's earlier time. Hamilton was unable to match Massa but is marginally quicker than Alonso on his seemingly only attempt during this session.

5 minutes from the end, Maldonado is the first to fit super soft Pirelli tyres. He set the 12th quickest time on the soft tyres and is looking to secure a place to get through to Q2.

The amount of drivers going faster on the super soft became a worry for Alonso and Hamilton at the very end of the session, leading to Ferrari bringing out the Spaniard for a go on the super soft tyres. Hamilton came out as well but returned quickly due to a yellow flag preventing an improvmenet. Alonso on the other hand set a laptime, even though he would have made it through anyway. He improved and made it though, but he was 17th fastest with his time on soft, and hardly improved a tenth compared to his best lap on the harder prime tyre.

Eliminated are therefore Senna, Petrov, Kobalainen, Pic, Glock, De La Rosa and Karthikeyan. The latter was out early as he had a brake issue on his first outing, requiring him to stay in the garage for the rest of the session.

At the start of Q2, nobody is very eager to go out early, and after a minute was gone, Pérez finally decided to take his Sauber car out for a go. Kobayashi followed suit, along with the Force India cars. Everybody now seems to choose the super soft tyre immediately.

The Mexican's first lap is a 1:38.981, but that is destined not to stand long as Webber, Alonso and most other cars are out by now.

Halfway into the session, Vettel is on top again, completing the lap in 1:37.767. Alonso is second quickest, two tenths down and marginally ahead of Hamilton. Webber is 4th, ahead of Massa, Grosjean, Schumacher, Button, Raikkonen, Kobayashi.

At the very end, nearly everyone goes out for another attempt. Hulkenberg is the first to improve into 7th. Rosberg does the same a few seconds later. Raikkonen also managed to improve and posts the 5th fastest time. Button, Maldonado and Di Resta all made attempts as well but none of them managed to improve enough to make it through to Q2.

Ricciardo meanwhile parked his car along the circuit and obviously failed to improve himself as well. There appeared to be an issue with the gearbox on the Toro Rosso.

The yellow flag caused by Ricciardo also ruined some drivers's laps, including those of Button and both Sauber cars. Eliminated are therefore Button, Pérez, Kobayashi, Di Resta, Maldonado, Ricciardo and Vergne.

In Q3, Hulkenberg is out early but returns to the pits as quickly as he went out, not setting a time. By the halfway mark, those on a regular 2-attempt strategy have completed their first laps, and again it's Vettel who comes out fastest. Alonso is second but more than 3 tenths behind the Red Bull. Webber is 3rd fastest, Massa 4th, Hamilton 5th, Raikkonen 6th and Grosjean 7th.

Schumacher and Rosberg meanwhile did practice starts at the end of the pitlane and then returned to the pitlane after 2 laps, not setting times, just like Hulkenberg.

Webber is the first to complete his second flying lap, beating Vettel's first lap. This is immediately good for pole position, as Vettel failed to improve. Hamilton moved up into third, even despite Alonso improving his own time. Raikkonen is 5th, just behind the quickest Ferrari.