Lewis Hamilton will start on pole position for Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit.
The race will serve as the final round of the 2016 Formula One World Championship, in which Hamilton will have to beat Nico Rosberg by more than 12 points if he wants to stop his German teammate from taking the title.
The story of Q1 was not a good one for the Toro Rosso team, as both of their drivers failed to advance into Q2 for the first time in three years. Meanwhile, this opened the door to Q2 for both of the Haas F1 drivers as well as Pascal Wehrlein, who got his Manor into Q2 for the fifth time this season.
Wehrlein qualified 16th in Q2 while the Haas F1 teammates locked out Row 7 and McLaren’s Jenson Button qualified 12th for - what is expected to be - his last F1 start. Meanwhile, the Red Bull Racing teammates got through to Q3 on the supersoft tires, as opposed to ultrasoft, which gives them to option to challenge Mercedes on strategy on Sunday.
Hamilton set a 1:39.013 early on in the final qualifying session, then topped it at the end of the session with a 1:38.755. Rosberg was three tenths of a second behind him in second while Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo leapfrogged the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen at the end of the session to take third. Meanwhile, Williams driver Felipe Massa will start in 10th position for his final F1 race.
Unofficial qualifying results:
1. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
3. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull
4. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
5. Max Verstappen - Red Bull
6. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
7. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India
8. Sergio Perez - Force India
9. Fernando Alonso - McLaren
10. Felipe Massa - Williams
11. Valtteri Bottas - Williams
12. Jenson Button - McLaren
13. Esteban Gutierrez - Haas
14. Romain Grosjean - Haas
15. Jolyon Palmer - Renault
16. Pascal Wehrlein - Manor
17. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso
18. Kevin Magnussen - Renault
19. Felipe Nasr - Sauber
20. Esteban Ocon - Manor
21. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso
22. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber
