Motionless Hamilton on pole in Korea

Hamilton on pole.

Lewis Hamilton ended Red Bull's qualifying dominance in the 2011 season as he took pole position with a time of 1.35.820 ahead of World Champion Sebastian Vettel in second and his Mclaren team mate Jenson Button in third. It's been a difficult year for Hamilton and this pole position, which is his 19th career pole, would have given him a psychological boost despite the lack of motion he showed in the aftermath.

Tyre selection was the centre of debate as the teams prepared for qualifying and their race strategy but this wasn't as difficult to decide as earlier expected. Mclaren had already shown their competitive edge this weekend with Lewis and Jenson being at the top of the practice time sheets and had given their rivals, although the title race is over, a fierce warning ahead of this weekend's race. With P3 being over after the chequered flag was waved, Hamilton, Button and Vettel as well as Massa and Alonso were fighting hard on their final laps. Hamilton ended his session with a fast time getting into the 1.35s which was shortly followed by Button who managed 1.36.126 taking him up to second before Vettel followed denying Mclaren a one-two but not enough to take top spot of Hamilton. Mark Webber qualified in 4th in front of Felipe Massa who out qualified his Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso in 6th.

When the drivers went in to Parc Ferme, Lewis Hamilton got out of his car slowly and did not celebrate his pole position. He showed no emotions and just went through to be weighed and cool off after an exciting qualifying session, Vettel came in and seemed rather content with his performance and inspected one of the Mclarens and made his way to be weighed. When the drivers came out for their top 3 photo, Hamilton didn't smile and again looked very subdued as Button and Vettel talked to each other. In the press conference, Hamilton was asked about his lack of emotion and said that he was very happy inside and gave a brief answer. This was the first time this season that Red Bull haven't been on pole position and that run stretches back to Brazil last year as well so it's nice to see someone different at the top.

If Hamilton can convert the pole position into victory tomorrow then I am sure that smile will return to the face of Hamilton who has admitted himself that this has been his worst year in Formula One but he has the chance to end it strongly. Although the battle for the world title is over, there is still plenty to race for and a strong end for Mclaren will give them the baseline for more development in 2012. It should be an interesting race and will  test whether Hamilton has still got the ability to get race wins. The race begins at 7am in England tomorrow morning.