Abu Dhabi – Qualifications: Surprise, Bottas springs out of his box!
Valtteri Bottas claims the last pole of the season ahead of Lewis Hamilton, sliding in the final corner of the last attempt. Third, Sebastian Vettel failed to close the gap beyond that famous half-second difference!
The final duel against the clock turned in favor of Mercedes, far ahead of Ferrari. But while Lewis Hamilton had dominated the first timed laps, the Briton ultimately conceded! Bottas led the charge in Q3, securing the best time after the first run (obviously on ultra-soft tires): 1:36:231 and a lead of 0.172 seconds. Under pressure, the new four-time world champion cracked in the twentieth corner, near the finish line. A slight oversteer, synonymous with failure! On the other side of the garage, they are celebrating the Finnish driver’s fourth pole position of the season.
👏👏👏 That feeling when you lock out the front-row! #AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 @F1 pic.twitter.com/g2iX9nUSG8
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) November 25, 2017
Ricciardo shows his strength too!
In general, the suspense wasn’t particularly intense in most of the garages. But for honor, the drivers battled against the clock. A always delicate exercise on the 5.554-kilometer circuit designed around Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi. The drop in temperatures between the sunset of Q1 (31 degrees in the air) and the night of Q3 forced the teams to be ingenious in exploiting the tires. Rear grip of the car in the last sector was one of the keys to the session.
And in this little game, Mercedes has therefore maintained its advantage from Free Practice, but in a rather unexpected order. However, the Interlagos accident will be beneficial for Lewis Hamilton. Tomorrow in the race, the low mileage on his engine will give him a little extra to secure another victory.
With his 22-point lead and his position on the grid, Vettel is well on his way to maintaining his position as vice-world champion. But it’s impossible to do better than third, given the significant gap with the Mercedes W08. Behind him, it won’t be his teammate, but Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian broke the barrier established with Ferrari, overtaking Kimi Räikkönen, also in the last lap of Q3. This may be enough to maintain the advantage and his fourth place in the drivers’ world championship. At the end of this session, seven points separate the two contenders (200 points for Ricciardo, 193 points for Räikkönen). Max Verstappen is left behind this time, pushed to sixth place, four-tenths behind his teammate!
Behind, Nico Hülkenberg makes a good move with his seventh place. He narrowly beats the two Force India drivers, Sergio Pérez ahead of Esteban Ocon.
“Fernando, Felipe is faster than you!”
For the last qualifying session of his career, Felipe Massa (10th) treated himself to a small pleasure by just edging Fernando Alonso out of the participants’ list for Q3. A nice twist of fate for the former Ferrari duo… Carlos Sainz was also one of the big names knocked out at the end of Q2.
.@MassaFelipe19 makes it into Q3 in his final #F1 race 👏#AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 #Quali pic.twitter.com/WJ5vkvSaEN
— Formula 1 (@F1) 25 novembre 2017
For the two other Tricolores, the trend is more gloomy. By thirteen thousandths of a second against Stroll, Grosjean found himself stuck in Q1, with the 16th place. The Haas driver later regretted the lack of preparation of his car, especially at the front; and the poor warming of his tires.
Worst outcome for Toro Rosso, who lost both cars by the end of the first session. Still, an honorable mention to Pierre Gasly, who finished 17th, three spots ahead of Brendon Hartley, who was penalized by 10 places anyway.
A blow nonetheless for the Faenza firm, which must not concede more than four points to Renault to maintain the sixth place in the constructors’ championship! The French team therefore has the upper hand to make one of the good deals of the weekend.
