Results from today’s 3 rounds of knockout Qualifying for the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi below the fold…

Webber earns second consecutive pole, outduels Vettel in the desert

For the second week in a row, outgoing Red Bull driver Mark Webber snatched the pole, beating out teammate and World Champion Sebastian Vettel who qualified second. Webber’s blistering final Q3 lap of 1:39.957 made him the only driver to post a time below 1:40. Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg rounded out the top 3, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton had an unfortunate last lap spin when something on his car failed, relegating the Englishman to 4th on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Nonetheless, that leaves Mercedes in better position than Ferrari as the two teams battle it out for second in the all-important and massively lucrative Constructors’ Championship because Fernando Alonso could not get out of Q2 for the first time this season. The Spaniard and 2-time former champ simply could not put a fast lap together before time ran out and qualified 11th, while teammate Felipe Massa was able to make it to 8th.

However, Ferrari did get a boost and both drivers will move up a position when Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus, which he had qualified 5th, failed its post-qualifying floor deflection test. This means the Finn will have to start from the back of the grid in Sunday’s race and probably cements Lotus’s 4th place in the Constructors’. It was an extremely rocky week in the Raikkonen-Lotus relationship, as race radio recordings from last week’s Grand Prix of India were released confirming that Lotus track boss Alan Permane profanely ordered Raikonnen to get out of teammate Grosjean’s way in the dying laps of that race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZym1TtB9iU

There is also the issue of Raikonnen’s outstanding payments due from Lotus, which some reports indicate could be as much as $20 million dollars. This has led to the Finnish driver, who will not be back at Lotus and will be competing for rival Ferrari next year, threatening to skip the last two races of the year. All in all, a very nasty end to what had been a mutually beneficial relationship, with Raikkonen working his way back to the top level of the sport in a competitive chassis and Lotus gaining strong finishes and the resultant crucial cash infusion from the buckets of Constructors’ points he and Grosjean delivered to the team. Let’s hope they can work out their differences in a professional manner and that the Iceman and Lotus can finish the season on a positive note. Though that is not going to be easy now starting from the back of the grid in Abu Dhabi. It seems when things go south in F1, they tend to tumble in a hurry.

Top 10 qualifiers here:

Full post-penalty starting grid here at Autosport.com

Tomorrow’s race starts at 8AM Eastern and can be seen in the States on NBCSN with coverage beginning a half hour before the lights go out. Don’t forget to turn your clocks back!