Australia Mark Webber grabbed the 13th pole position of his career on Saturday when he clocked the fastest lap in a tense qualifying session as Red Bull swept the front row of the grid for Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The 37-year-old, who retires from Formula One at the end of the season, recorded 1min 39.957sec to edge out newly-crowned quadruple world champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Webber, who will start from the front of the grid for only the second time this season, equalled the Australian record of 13 poles set by Alan Jones, who was celebrating his 67th birthday on Saturday.

In a thrilling finale to an intriguing day, the two Red Bull men crossed the line after the chequered flag to clock their best laps, but battling Lewis Hamilton failed to do the same as he spun his Mercedes in the final part of his lap.

"Fantastic guys, thank you for a fantastic job," said Webber on the Red Bull team radio.

"This weekend has gone pretty smoothly," he added later.

"Not the smoothest path to the start of Q2 or Q1, we were not electric, but we changed the car quite a bit and I got more and more comfortable as the session went on.

"It made me more comfortable in the final sector, where Seb has been quick, so I was able to match him there and stay where I had been quick already."

Vettel said it was terrific to have seen off what he considered was a dangerous looking Mercedes team.

"I think it's a great result for the team. At the start of qualifying, Mercedes looked very strong, especially in Q2. We seem to be able to find a bit of extra time in Q3.

"Mark did a very good lap so congratulations to him. I should have done a bit better, but I don't know if it would have been enough. He did a great job, no mistakes. It's a great result for the team and we should have a strong race tomorrow."

Hamilton ended up fourth and will start alongside his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, who was third fastest.

"Something broke at the rear of the car," said a disappointed Hamilton, who has twice previously taken pole at the spectacular Yas Marina circuit.

The problem was later diagnosed as a right-rear wishbone failure

"It was a little bit of an unusual event because Lewis had got out of the corner when he lost control of the car," said Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn.

"When we got the car back, we had fractured a wishbone so that's why he lost control of the car."

Later Saturday, Kimi Raikkonen's troubled weekend continued when he was relegated to the back of the grid after having finished fifth fastest in qualifying.

The Finn, who wil drive for Ferrari next season, was excluded from the timesheets after his Lotus failed a technical test.

Raikkonen has been at the centre of controversy when he threatened to boycott the race after claiming he had not been paid this year.

His car was judged not to conform to the sport's technical regulations after a 'front floor deflection' test.

After a lengthy meeting with team representatives, the race stewards said they did not accept the Lotus explanation that the floor had been broken due to impact with the kerbs at the spectacular state-of-the-art track.

Raikkonen's times in qualifying were excluded, adding to the furore that has surrounded him and Lotus since he arrived late at the circuit on Friday morning.

On Friday evening, he made clear he was prepared to boycott the final two races of the season in the United States and Brazil because he has not yet been paid by the team this year.

He is reportedly owed more than 15 million euros.