Rosberg fastest in the desert to take Pole & keep dream alive, Hamilton starts 2nd; Bottas a strong 3rd
In the last Qualifying session of the 2104 Formula 1 season, Mercedes’ contender Nico Rosberg kept his Championship dream alive and the heat on his points-leading teammate Lewis Hamilton by taking Pole in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Rosberg laid down a blistering 1:40.48 on his final lap of Q3, nearly 4-tenths faster than Hamilton’s best effort. The German heads into tomorrow’s title-deciding race with renewed confidence coming off a win in Brazil in the previous Grand Prix and taking a dominant Pole today. But Hamilton still controls his own fate and will wrap up the Drivers’ Championship with a win tomorrow. With both men piloting the fastest cars in the field and barring mechanical issues, it should be a dogfight to the end in the last race of the season to determine who walks away as World Champion.
Williams once again showed that they were only just off the pace of the factory Mercedes team with Valtteri Bottas continuing his breakout season with an excellent P3 and Massa continuing his season of renewal with P4. The Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo & Sebastian Vettel had the 5th and 6th fastest times respectively but saw their efforts disqualified in post-Quali scrutineering due to illegal, overly-flexible front wings. They will now have to start from the back of the grid come Sunday. Daniil Kvyat, who drives for Torro Rosso now but will move to the senior Red Bull team next year, had a sterling effort in his Ferrari-powered chassis to take 7th position and Jenson Button was a solid P8 for McLaren. The two factory Ferraris rounded out the top 10 with Kimi Raikkonen out-dueling Fernando Alonso P9 to P10.
Adjusted Top 10 after the Red Bulls’ exclusion here:
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1m40.480s | – |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m40.866s | 0.386s |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Mercedes | 1m41.025s | 0.545s |
| 4 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 1m41.119s | 0.639s |
| 5 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso/Renault | 1m41.908s | 1.428s |
| 6 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Mercedes | 1m41.964s | 1.484s |
| 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1m42.236s | 1.756s |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1m42.866s | 2.386s |
| 9 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren/Mercedes | 1m42.198s | 1.718s |
| 10 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso/Renault | 1m42.207s | 1.727s |
Complete updated Qualifying results available at AutoSport.com.
Tomorrow’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix airs live on NBCSports channel at beginning at 7:30am Eastern. It’s the last race of the year and will determine whether Hamilton or Rosberg comes away as Champion — how can you miss it?