MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - Lewis Hamilton laid down a scorching time in qualifying Saturday for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as championship leader Sebastian Vettel came third.
The McLaren driver set a lap of 1 minute 40.630 seconds to end Red Bull’s record of locking out the front row at the last three races.
Hamilton, who had earlier said it would be near-impossible for him to take pole on the street circuit, is shooting for his second-straight Abu Dhabi win.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber was second while Vettel was third, 0.443 seconds off Hamilton’s time. The German’s car stopped on track at the end of the session, causing speculation he may face sanctions.
Fernando Alonso is the only man with a realistic chance of taking the championship from Vettel, but the Ferrari driver’s job became even tougher as he qualified seventh, almost a second off the pace.
To make matters worse, stewards said he would be investigated for an incident in the pitlane also involving Lotus’ Romain Grosjean, who was 10th.
Pastor Maldonado showed a surprise burst of pace to qualify his Williams fourth, but faces a ten-place grid drop for using more too many engines throughout the season.
Elsewhere, Kimi Raikkonen was fifth for Lotus, with Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button sixth. Behind Alonso, eighth went to Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, followed by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Grosjean.
Stewards said they would investigate an incident in which Sauber’s Sergio Perez appeared to block Williams driver Bruno Senna, opening up the possibility of a grid penalty for the Mexican, who qualified 12th.
That would be latest in a series of setbacks for Perez, who has not scored a point in four races since he signed for McLaren in September.
Russia’s Vitaly Petrov also had a poor qualifying session as he seeks a drive for 2013, finishing in 22nd behind his Caterham teammate Heikki Kovalainen and Charles Pic of the rival Marussia team.
