Hamilton snaps Vettel's pole streak in Korea

YEONGAM, South Korea- After having to witness many pole position taken by Sebastian Vettel, Saturday afternoon saw a real change as Lewis Hamilton recorded a 1:38:820 best lap to win his first pole of the season for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Korea at Yeognam. Vettel himself finished second, while Jenson Button was third.

"Throughout the year, I don't think my qualifying performances have been too bad - it's only in the last two races that I didn't manage to get my final run in Q3 - so today's result wasn't entirely unexpected.” Said Hamilton. “Still, we've been quick as a team and never stopped making improvements to the car. I'm so, so proud of all the men and women both here at the circuit and back at Woking who has worked so hard to get us back to where we want to be. Of course, pole position is still only the first step, particularly when we know that tomorrow's race will be long and unpredictable.”

Vettel, finally had his streak broken, but felt that race day was more important.

"McLaren looked very competitive yesterday; I know the conditions were completely different, but you could see they were a fair chunk ahead of everyone else, including us.” Stated Vettel. “They looked extremely quick this morning in the dry also, but I think once again we pushed them very hard in qualifying and got closer than I think they, and we, expected. So, I think we did a good job. We also saved all our soft tires, which I think will be crucial for tomorrow. We only had a rough idea from this morning with more fuel in the car, but I think we are in a good position. There's not a long run to the first corner and Turn 3 is a little bit exposed, so we'll see. It's a long race, a lot of things can happen and I think tire wear will be crucial."

Hamilton did not just dominate the final session, but even the first two knockout periods with times of 1:37:629 and 1:13:620, respectively. HRT driver Daniel Riccardo suffered a problem with his engine and could never get into the car, placing him in 24th and last position for race day. Michael Schumacher, Bruno Senna and Sergio Perez all failed to advance beyond the second knockout session.

But Hamilton was never in any trouble, and posted his best time with minutes left in the final session. Many drivers followed, but even Vettel could not top the 2008 world champion’s time for the day, and after many successful pole positions for the German, it was at last time for the streak to finally come to an end.

Mark Webber finished a respectable fourth, while Fernando Alonso took fifth. His Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa was sixth, while Nico Rosberg took his Mercedes around a couple of times, but managed to finish in seventh. Vitaly Petrov, Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil rounded out the top ten.

Button was pleased with his third place, but more focus was on his teammate, who has had to catch up with him most of the season.

"Congratulations to Lewis - he's been very quick and has been all weekend and I just couldn't quite get close enough to him this afternoon.” He said. “On my final run, I think I lost some ground in the last corner: I hit the limiter at the apex and lost a bit of time, but I feel good in the car. Third position isn't where I want to start, but we can have a good race from there: there are a lot of long straights on this circuit, especially after the start. With a headwind from Turn Two to Turn Three, there could be a lot of action on the first lap - I'm looking forward to that! Our car is feeling good this weekend. As a team, we've done a great job - and I'm particularly grateful to the guys in the garage who worked extremely hard last night to switch my chassis. Thanks guys. We're slightly heading into the unknown tomorrow as we haven't run high-fuel yet. Off the line tomorrow, we'll need to get a feel for how the cars behave on high-fuel, and then we've got to focus on what we're doing to the tyres over the course of a stint. We have all the ingredients for a fantastic race. Even more encouragingly, if we continue this way, fighting for poles and wins, then it'll be a really good way to end the season and the perfect basis for 2012."

For Hamilton as well, his result was satisfying, but like Vettel ,  It is the race that counts.

“Of course, pole position is still only the first step, particularly when we know that tomorrow's race will be long and unpredictable. Pole is always a great achievement and I'm particularly proud to have achieved it at the team's 700th Formula 1 grand prix. We've been working to improve our starts, and I hope we can convert pole into the lead tomorrow. The grand Prix’s going to be tough, and it'll be difficult to beat the two guys starting immediately behind me, but I hope to keep the lead and control the race in a responsible way. I now want to put all my energy into the race."