Hamilton earns pole for final race of the season; Bottas second quickest but starts at rear due to engine penalties; Verstappen qualifies P3
Lewis Hamilton, looking to close out his 2019 championship season in suitably dominant style, earned his first pole position since Germany in Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Mercedes ace and newly minted 6-time World Champion was head and shoulders above his nearest competition en route to the top spot on the timing sheets, besting his teammate Valtteri Bottas by 2-tenths of a second. Unfortunately for Bottas that strong effort in the gloaming of Yas Marina Circuit was for nought, as the Finn will be relegated to the back of the grid due to multiple power unit replacement penalties. It should make for an exiting race for the Silver Arrow’s number two man, who has already clinched second overall in the Drivers’ standings, as he powers his way through back of the field in the opening laps of tomorrow’s race.
Third fastest was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who struggled to keep his rear tires under him when pushing hard but crucially out-qualified Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in his quest to take third in the Drivers’ points when the curtain comes down after tomorrow’s GP. Leclerc somehow managed to muff his timing and could not set a better fast lap than P4 before the checkers flew to end Q3. The talented Monegasque, who had a breakout year and seems to be on the cusp of greatness, will be pushing hard at the start of tomorrow’s race to try and overtake Verstappen and claim third overall in the season’s standings for himself. At present Verstappen has an 11-point advantage for that last spot on the 2019 overall “podium.” Leclerc’s teammate Sebastian Vettel struggled after arriving late to the weekend due to the birth of his third child, even spinning like a gentian driver in while putting down the power in Q2, and the 4-time champ could do no better than the fifth fastest time. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Alexander Albon was P6 while McLaren’s Lando Norris, yet another promising rookie, earned bragging rights over his teammate Carlos Sainz for the season-long qualifying battle by outperforming the veteran Spaniard P6 to P9 for a 11-10 advantage overall, a key confidence booster for thee young Englishman. And Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg showed decent pace for Renault by setting the P8 and P10 times for what is likely the outgoing Hulkenberg’s last F1 race weekend.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Abu Dhabi GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:35.851 | 1:35.634 | 1:34.779 | |
| 2 | 1:36.200 | 1:35.674 | 1:34.973 | |
| 3 | 1:36.390 | 1:36.275 | 1:35.139 | |
| 4 | 1:36.478 | 1:35.543 | 1:35.219 | |
| 5 | 1:36.963 | 1:35.786 | 1:35.339 | |
| 6 | 1:36.102 | 1:36.718 | 1:35.682 | |
| 7 | 1:37.545 | 1:36.764 | 1:36.436 | |
| 8 | 1:37.106 | 1:36.785 | 1:36.456 | |
| 9 | 1:37.358 | 1:36.308 | 1:36.459 | |
| 10 | 1:37.506 | 1:36.859 | 1:36.710 |
The adjusted starting grid is here.
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 8AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Hamilton can end 2019 in suitably victorious fashion or another elite driver can spoil his party!