Chris
Premium
With the Mercedes looking undeniably strong all weekend, even by their lofty standards, it was a question of which of the two Silver Arrows would take first, and which would take second. For the final time in this record breakingly long season, qualifying got underway.
Undoubtedly the star of the first session was Pascal Wehrlein in his Manor as he managed to capitalize on the lack of running and mistakes from the other teams to book himself a place in Q2. Toro Rosso are having their worst weekend of the season as a significant lack of running due to some concerning reliability issues with brake tins inflicting punctures on Daniil Kvyat's car twice during FP1 and FP2. Carlos Sainz Jr. finished the first session in a highly frustrating 21st place. His worst legitimate qualifying position of the year.
In Q2 it was the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen who raised some eyebrows as he lapped just a tenth slower than Nico Rosberg, boosting the hopes of a possible non-Mercedes run away train. Red Bull yet again managed to find something on the Super-Soft tyre, despite most teams rejecting it on the grounds that it was considerably slower than the Ultra-Soft and the degredation levels were rather similar. The Austrian outfit took the gamble anyway and elected to start the race on the red-marked Super-Soft. Whether that will pay off remains to be seen.
In his final qualifying of his career, Jenson Button could only manage twelfth place, behind Valtteri Bottas who for only the fourth time this season was out-qualified by the also-retiring Felipe Massa.
Felipe Massa managed to beat his team mate on a Saturday for only the fourth time this season in his final ever Grand Prix.
As the final qualifying session got underway, it was the two Mercedes first out to gain track position. Hamilton continued to hold his advantage over Rosberg, this time by over three tenths after the first runs. As night fell, the track conditions gradually cooled, meaning that the times came down yet again, and on the final run the two Mercedes' found roughly one to two tenths on a lap. Nico continued his trend of being slightly quicker in the first sector, but losing out substantially to Hamilton in the second and third sectors. This pace advantage allowed Hamilton to finish his final lap with a scintillating 1:38.755 to Rosberg's 1:39.058.
Daniel Ricciardo yet again put in one of his banzai stonkers to take third place away from Raikkonen, while Sebastian Vettel finished the session in fifth place and was infuriated. Verstappen squandered his chance of a top three start after a small mistake in the final sector.
2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Grid
Q1 | Q2 | Q3
- Lewis Hamilton - 1:38.755
- Nico Rosberg - 1:39.058
- Daniel Ricciardo - 1:39.589
- Kimi Raikkonen - 1:39.604
- Sebastian Vettel - 1:39.661
- Max Verstappen - 1:39.818
- Nico Hulkenberg - 1:40.501
- Sergio Perez - 1:40.519
- Fernando Alonso - 1:41.106
- Felipe Massa - 1:41.213
- Valtteri Bottas - 1:41.084
- Jenson Button - 1:41.272
- Esteban Gutierrez - 1:41.480
- Romain Grosjean - 1:41.564
- Jolyon Palmer - 1:41.820
- Pascal Wehrlein - 1:41.995
- Daniil Kvyat - 1:42.003
- Kevin Magnussen - 1:42.142
- Felipe Nasr - 1:42.247
- Esteban Ocon - 1:42.286
- Carlos Sainz Jr. 1:42.393
- Marcus Ericsson - 1:42.637
With Mercedes looking so strong, Rosberg simply needs to stroke his car home to a podium place and he will be the 2016 World Champion. Can Hamilton get tactful by trying to back him into the chasing pack? Or will it be too little too late?
Images credit of FIA.com
