Hamilton stoney faced despite pole success

The McLaren-Mercedes driver is at the front of the gird for the Korean Grand Prix but you would not have guessed it by his downbeat persona

Lewis Hamilton hardly looks like a man who had qualified on pole.

YEONGAM, SOUTH KOREA // Lewis Hamilton finally broke Red Bull Racing's monopoly on pole position, but he failed to break the expected smile to complement it.

The British driver posted an exceptional fastest lap during qualifying ahead of today's Korean Grand Prix to finish 0.222 seconds quicker than Sebastian Vettel, with McLaren-Mercedes teammate Jenson Button placing third.

It was the first time Hamilton had secured his place at the front of the grid since the Canadian Grand Prix in June 2010 and also provided a rare personal highlight in a season that has been plagued by controversy and disappointment. The result also denied Red Bull the opportunity to maintain their record of claiming pole at every race this season.

Yet Hamilton appeared surprisingly subdued. When his race engineer told him over the team radio "Great news, you are on pole," the 26-year-old failed to respond. In the immediate post-session press conference, he was asked twice why he appeared so underwhelmed. He said he was "happy, very happy", but his face remained set in stone.

"I am happy," he said, when asked again about his demeanour. "It's one of the first positives I've had for a while. To be back on pole is great, but it doesn't mean a huge amount as the race is what counts. To be up here is great feeling, but it's not the most important day."

Gary Paffett, the McLaren test and reserve driver, said on his official Twitter feed that Hamilton was "back to his best on track, but clearly has some issues".

McLaren have dominated all weekend, with Button and Hamilton sharing the top of the time-sheets in the final two practice sessions. On the back of Button's victory in Japan last week, it appears the Woking-based marque are arriving at their true potential a few weeks too late. Vettel secured the world championship in Suzuka and Red Bull will wrap up the constructors' title if they outscore McLaren this weekend.

"As a team, we are disappointed we couldn't get this performance earlier in the year," Button said. "But I think we've done a great job through the latter part of the season and it can only be good for next year."

Vettel denied his team had even considered the possibility of closing out the season with a 100 per cent qualifying record. "It would have been nice, but it was never really a target," he added. "McLaren looked very competitive [on Friday] and you could see they were a fair chunk ahead of everyone else, including us."

Vettel was later summoned to the stewards' office concerning his decision to leave the track between turns four and six as he raced to pass the chequered flag in time to post a final flying lap. However, after consulting with Vettel and Christian Horner, the team principal, no action was taken by the sport's governing body.

"Having noted that [Vettel] started what was [his] fastest lap with 17 seconds to spare prior to the chequered flag, the stewards determined that no advantage was gained," read a statement. No further action was taken.