Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying: White Lines and Tea Trays.

Photo: Sahara Force India

The FIA made ominous pronouncements about penalizing drivers who go four off in qualifying. Many di and the FIA did nothing about it. Well done.

Not that they have not been busy checking things, Hulkenberg's Sauber and Raikkonen's Lotus both had their floor tested, Hulk passed, Kimi's tea tray moved more than allowed so he will start from the back.   A way for Lotus to save on contractual point bonuses?  No that would be crazy,  like ordering one of your drivers to crash intentionally....

Hamilton got hosed, literally. Rear suspension failure in Q3, means mechanics will have to fix it in parc ferme and hope they won't find any nasty surprises. For sure they will have to clean up all the fire extinguisher foam an over eager track marshall sprayed all over the car when he saw smoke coming from the brakes.

All this might make Ferrari's week end less miserable than it has been so far. In front of that gargantuan Ferrariworld exhibition center, to have a "no budget" Sauber kick your but with the same engine is just sad.

Speaking of sad, I don't think anyone was sad to see Webber take pole from an clearly bummed out Vettel. Unfortunately, Helmut Marko will insist on personally setting Webber's clutch tonight.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car               Time       Gap
 1.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault       1m39.957s
 2.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault       1m40.075s  +0.118s
 3.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes               1m40.419s  +0.462s
 4.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes               1m40.501s  +0.544s
 5.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault          1m40.542s  +0.585s
 6.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari         1m40.576s  +0.619s
 7.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault          1m40.997s  +1.040s
 8.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari                1m41.015s  +1.058s
 9.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes       1m41.068s  +1.111s
10.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.111s  +1.154s
Q2 cut-off time: 1m40.989s                                    Gap **
11.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari                1m41.093s  +0.620s
12.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes   1m41.133s  +0.660s
13.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes       1m41.200s  +0.727s
14.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.279s  +0.806s
15.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault       1m41.395s  +0.922s
16.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault       1m41.447s  +0.974s
Q1 cut-off time: 1m41.884s                                    Gap *
17.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari         1m41.999s  +1.306s
18.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes   1m42.051s  +1.358s
19.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault       1m43.252s  +2.559s
20.  Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth      1m43.398s  +2.705s
21.  Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault       1m43.528s  +2.835s
22.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth      1m44.198s  +3.505s

107% time: 1m47.741s
* Gap to quickest in Q1
** Gap to quickest in Q2