YEONGNAM (South Korea), Oct 13: Red Bull driver Mark Webber upstaged his team-mate Sebastian Vettel by claiming pole position on Saturday for the Formula One Korean Grand Prix, outpacing the German and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

The Australian stormed to pole on the last lap of qualifying, finishing just 0.074 seconds ahead of Vettel. Hamilton was third followed by championship leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.

Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen qualified fifth, meaning the top five in the drivers’ championship standings fill the top five grid slots, raising the prospects of a vital shootout in Sunday’s race.

“I was happy with my lap there, it was solid and it’s good to get pole,” Webber said. “It’s a great place to start the race from. I’m looking to get off the first corner very well, that’s important as there are two long straights after that.”

Vettel has won the past two races, in Singapore and Japan, and would overtake Alonso in the standings with a third consecutive win on Sunday.

The German had dominated practice sessions and topped the times in the first two sessions of qualifying, but when it mattered, he could not match the time set by his team-mate.

“On the last run, I had to back off starting the lap as (Felipe) Massa was there, it wasn’t his fault, but I had to back off,” Vettel said.

“Nevertheless, the second lap in Q3 wasn’t good enough.’’

Webber, who recorded only his second pole of the season after Monaco, improved his lap time by a half a second on his final run.

Vettel can take some comfort in the fact that neither pole-sitter in the first two editions of the Korean Grand Prix had gone on to win on Sunday.

It was an encouraging result for Hamilton who almost failed to advance to the second session of qualifying, making it through by just a quarter of a second. The Briton said he expects it will be a challenge to overtake the Red Bulls on Sunday.

“It will be very tough to get ahead of them but we’ve put ourselves in as good a position as we could,” Hamilton said.

“It was very tough this weekend. These guys have clearly made quite a big step within the last two races so we’ve just got to keep pushing.”

McLaren driver Jenson Button made an error and then was forced to slow for a late yellow flag in the second qualifying session and finished a disappointing 11th.

Raikkonen, who is third in the standings despite not having won a race in his comeback season, qualified fifth, ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.

Lotus’ Romain Grosjean was seventh ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg. The Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were ninth and tenth respectively.

Starting grid: 1. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull — Renault; 2. Sebastian Vettel (Germany)    RedBull — Renault; 3. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren; 4. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari; 5. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Lotus — Renault; 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari; 7. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus — Renault; 8. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India — Mercedes; 9. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes; 10. Michael Schumacher (Germany) Mercedes; 11. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren; 12. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Sauber — Ferrari; 13. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Sauber — Ferrari; 14. Paul Di Resta (Britain) Force India — Mercedes; 15. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Williams — Renault; 16. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Toro Rosso — Ferrari; 17. Jean-Eric Vergne (France) Toro Rosso — Ferrari; 18. Bruno Senna (Brazil) Williams — Renault; 19. Vitaly Petrov (Russia) Caterham — Renault; 20. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Caterham — Renault; 21. Timo Glock (Germany) Marussia — Cosworth; 22. Pedro de la Rosa (Spain) HRT — Cosworth; 23. Narain Karthikeyan (India) HRT — Cosworth;

24. Charles Pic (France) Marussia — Cosworth.—Agencies