Hamilton Pole in Korea

Lewis Hamilton finally broke Red Bull’s monopoly of 2011 pole positions with a brilliant performance in qualifying for the Korean Grand Prix.

Under fire after a string of mistakes in recent races and bearing a reflective and downcast demeanour this weekend, the McLaren driver began the process of rebuilding his battered confidence by topping the times in all three segments of qualifying and beating pole king Vettel by 0.2s in an exciting climax to Q3.

It was a vintage Hamilton display – pitching the car into corners with total commitment, loading up the front end and effortlessly coping with the resultant oversteer – and yet it was clinical in the manner of his team-mate Jenson Button and there was no hint of a mistake.

Hamilton seemed underwhelmed by his achievement afterwards, making no celebratory gestures and insisting the real prize was to return to the top step of the podium on race day – although the length of time he took to compose himself after pulling into parc fermé seemed to suggest he had crossed an important personal threshold.

Perhaps realising McLaren had a slight pace advantage, and mindful of the pivotal role tyre degradation is likely to play in the race, Red Bull took a novel approach to tyre management in qualifying, sending both their drivers out on the super-soft ‘option’ compound in Q1 as well as Q2.

The aim was clearly to ensure they had an extra new set of the harder prime tyres – the favoured compound for the race here – available for Sunday. With as many as four pit stops per driver on the cards, such strategic variables are sure to be at least as important as sheer speed in determining the race’s outcome.

Suzuka winner Button vied with Hamilton and Vettel for pole but came up 0.3s short, but his sympathetic driving style may well stand him in good stead if tyre wear proves a decisive factor in the race.

Mark Webber took fourth on the grid, more than 0.4s shy of Red Bull team-mate Vettel after aborting his final Q3 lap following a mistake at the first corner.

The Ferraris will share the third row, and once again it was Felipe Massa who was marginally the faster driver even though Fernando Alonso had the benefit of a new front wing. As Alonso suggested afterwards, perhaps that gave Ferrari their answer as to whether the new part had proved a success…

Nico Rosberg was seventh and the sole Mercedes representative in the top 10 after team-mate Michael Schumacher fell at the Q2 hurdle, while eighth-placed Vitaly Petrov was Renault’s standard-bearer as birthday boy Bruno Senna’s difficult weekend continued.

Having got both their cars into the top 10, Force India again elected to save tyres rather than make a serious tilt at Q3, although Paul di Resta ensured he will start ninth ahead of team-mate Adrian Sutil by leaving the pits and returning after a single untimed lap.