Although pratices had previewed that the Mercedes would be a little faster than the Red Bull cars Sebastian Vettel managed to take his third consecutive pole position at the Korean Grand Prix stealing it from Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton was leading in the final stint of qualifying when Vettel took the lead, with an advantage of 0.308s over Hamilton. The British time would put him in third place behind Mark Webber, but in his last attempt he manage to take second place, not being able to challenge the German that didn't have to force pace on his last lap.

Webber also decided to back off on his last attempt and dropped one place to third, behind Hamilton. However he will receive a 10-place grid penalty for accumulating three driving reprimands, which will bring Sebastien Grosjean up to third, with Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa right behind him.

Sauber managed to put, for the first time this season, both its cars in Q3, with Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez in eighth and ninth respectively. Kimi Raikkonen closed the top ten with a 1.3 gap to Vettel.

This result from Sauber came to the expense of McLaren who didn't put any of its' cars in the top 10. Sergio Perez and Jenson Button were 11^th and 12^th respectively.