Mark Webber of Red Bull claimed the pole position at the Formula One (F1) Korean Grand Prix on Saturday.

The Australian had the fastest qualifying lap time of one minute 37.242 seconds on the Korea International Circuit in Yeongam, about 400 kilometers south of Seoul. Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel, the defending Korean Grand Prix champ, was second at 1:37.316, followed by Lewis Hamilton of McLaren-Mercedes at 1:37.469.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, the 2010 Korean Grand Prix winner, was fourth at 1:37.534.

The final is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday.

This was Webber's second pole of this season, following the Monaco Grand Prix in May which he won.

The two Red Bull drivers will take the front row on the 5.615-kilometer track. Hamilton and Alonso will line up behind them.

Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus was fifth fastest, followed by Ferrari driver Felipe Massa. Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg were next.

Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, Mercedes teammates, rounded out the top 10. Schumacher, the German veteran with a record seven championships, has announced his plan to retire for a second time at the end of this season.

From the field of 24, the last seven drivers were cut after the first qualifying run, and another seven were gone after the second session, leaving the final 10 to vie for the pole position.

Webber, fifth in this season's standings, will go for his first Korean Grand Prix title and his third victory of the year.

"I'm very, very happy to get the job done. We did it when it counted obviously, and that's what qualifying is all about," Webber said. "I'm really happy to start on pole. Tomorrow is the main day and we're in a good position to get a good result."

Webber also credited his team for building "a pretty handy car."

"I think the guys have been working very, very hard and the hard work is paying off," he said. "We focus on ourselves and just keep pushing the lap times down as much as we can."

Vettel, the two-time defending world champion, had posted the fastest times in two of three practice sessions over the past two days. He comes to the Korean race in good form, having won his last two races in Singapore and in Japan. He is the only F1 racer to win consecutive races this season.

Vettel looked poised for the pole after two qualifying sessions, before Webber took advantage of Vettel's mediocre last lap. Vettel said, however, that the second place still gave him a good starting position.

"Overall, I think we can be very happy with our result," he said. "I'd rather be at the pole, but the qualifying is over and it's not a big problem."

Vettel was briefly held up by Massa, though he refused to blame the Brazilian for costing him the pole.

Last year, Vettel dueled Hamilton, the pole winner, for the title, and said he has "good memories" from that race. The German said the unpredictable nature of the track may well render pole positions meaningless.

"You might as well start third, fourth or fifth, and you could end up in first by turn four," he said. "You have to take things as they come. It's difficult to know what's going to happen, but first of all, I will focus on the start and then go from there."

Alonso leads the race for the drivers' championship with 194 points, only four ahead of Vettel. The Spaniard's lead has been slashed in recent weeks as Vettel has won his last two races and Alonso crashed out of his most recent race, the Japanese Grand Prix, following a collision on the first corner.

Hamilton was the runner-up in each of the past two Korean Grand Prix finals. A victory here will give him a much-needed boost to his championship aspirations, as he trails four drivers in the overall points standings.

"I think it will be very tough to get ahead of them (Webber and Vettel)," Hamilton said. "These guys have clearly made a very big step, but we've put ourselves in as good a position as we could.

We've just got to keep pushing."

Hamilton almost didn't make it to the top 10. He was 17th after the first qualification run and beat Bruno Senna of Williams by a quarter of a second.

Hamilton admitted this was "quite a shocking session for me"

and that he was "lucky" that he made it through.

With Alonso and Vettel at the top, Raikkonen is in third in the standings at 157 points and Hamilton is right behind him at 152.

The winner of each race earns 25 points and the runner-up picks up 18 points, and so forth.

Vettel has won the last two overall championships, and he edged Alonso by four points, 256-252, for the 2010 title.

Jenson Button of McLaren, a two-time winner this season, missed out on the top 10, as did Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber, who was third last week in his native Japan.

The F1, the world's most prestigious open-wheel racing competition, attracts millions of fans and television viewers each year. Organizers here say the 2011 Korean Grand Prix drew 64,000 for the qualifying race and 85,000 for the final. (Yonhap News)

<관련 한글기사>

웨버, F1코리아 페텔 꺾고 예선 1위

마크 웨버(호주·레드불)가 국제 자동차 경주대회 포뮬러 원(F1) 코리아 그랑프리 예선 1위를 차지했다.

웨버는 13일 전남 영암 코리아 인터내셔널 서킷에서 열린 예선 3차 레이스에서 5.615㎞의 서킷 한 바퀴를 1분37초242에 달려 가장 좋은 랩 타임을 기록했다.

이로써 웨버는 14일 오후 3시 같은 장소에서 열리는 결선 레이스에서 가장 앞에 서 출발하는 폴 포지션을 확보했다.

웨버는 이번 시즌 5월 모나코 대회 이후 두 번째로 예선 1위에 올랐다.

지난해 한국 대회 우승자 제바스티안 페텔(독일·레드불)은 1분37초316을  기록 해 2위로 예선을 마쳤다. 페텔은 웨버 다음으로 좋은 자리에서 결선 레이스를  출발 한다.

컨스트럭터(팀) 부문 1위를 달리고 있는 레드불은 예선 1,2위를 휩쓸어 14일 결 선 레이스 전망을 밝혔다.

시즌 랭킹 포인트 선두인 페르난도 알론소(스페인·페라리)는 1분37초534로 4위 에 올랐고 루이스 해밀턴(영국·맥라렌)이 1분37초469로 3위다.

'F1 황제' 미하엘 슈마허(독일·메르세데스)는 1분38초513으로 10위에 올랐다.

전날 예선 목표로 '톱10 진입'을 내걸었던 그로서는 딱 목표치를 채운 셈이다.

7일 끝난 일본 그랑프리에서 3위를 차지한 고바야시 가무이(일본·자우버)는 예 선 2차 레이스에서 1분38초594를 기록, 13위에 머물러 3차 예선 진출에 실패했다. 1 3번째 출발 순서를 얻은 그는 2주 연속 입상권 진입 가능성이 옅어졌다.