US Grand Prix (2013): Vettel steals pole from Webber

Sebastian Vettel stole pole position from team mate Mark Webber in the final seconds of qualifying for the 2013 US Grand Prix in Austin.

Sebastian Vettel may already have wrapped up the drivers title, but that hasn’t taken away his motivation to win.

Despite what looked like an unbeatable time by Mark Webber, Vettel managed to turn a lap that didn’t look like it had the legs in the first half in to a second half that pipped Webber to pole. Another Red Bull front row.

Behind the Red Bulls, Romain Grosjean took third for Lotus, with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg in fourth and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton in fifth.

Alonso did a bit better than late with a sixth in his Ferrari, with the soon to depart Sergio Perez in the McLaren taking seventh.

The rest of final qualifying was taken up by Heikki Kovalainen in the Lotus in eighth – a fine performance as stand-in for Kimi Raikkonen – and a fine showing from Williams’s Valtteri Bottas and Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez to take ninth and tenth.

Unfortunately, Gutierrez will start 20th after a ten place penalty for getting in Pastor Maldonado’s way in Q1, and Jenson Button also gets a penalty of one place for ignoring red flags on Friday and will start 14th, just behind Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes who also went out in Q2.

Nice though it would be to see Webber take a win from Vettel, it does look like Seb’s on his way to a new record of eight consecutive wins in a season in Austin.