Vettel leads Red Bull in Korea qualifying

The German Sebastian Vettel takes pole ahead of Webber, Alonso at inaugural Korean Grand Prix at Yeongam circuit.

YEONGAM: Sebastian Vettel led a Red Bull lockout of the front row after qualifying at the inaugural Korean Grand Prix at the Yeongam circuit.

The 23-year-old German recorded his ninth pole of the season with a lap of one minute and 35.585 seconds, edging teammate and world championship leader Mark Webber by 0.074 seconds in a thrilling hour-long session.

Webber, who qualified on the front row for the 12th time this season, edged Vettel in the second knockout part of qualifying by three one-hundredths of a second. The 34-year-old, however, lost out to teammate in the final session after electing to run consecutive flying laps on the softer Bridgestone tyre.

Vettel’s pole is the 14th of his career, and the front-row one-two is Red Bull’s eighth of the season. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who was the third fastest, called the result the “maximum” for the Italian team.

“We knew that we had a little possibility [for pole], but not too much because we know when we arrive at the crucial moments, Red Bull is usually pushing a little bit more and quicker than everybody,” said Alonso.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Lewis Hamilton finished fourth for McLaren, half a second adrift of Vettel’s pole time. However, all was not pleasant for defending world champion Jenson Button who conceded it will be “very difficult” to retain his Formula One crown after qualifying in seventh position.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2010.