Qualifying: @LewisHamilton breaks lap record to claim #AbuDhabiGP pole. #F1
Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power, celebrating after claiming the final pole position of the 2019 season during qualifying at the Formula 1 Etihad AIrways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2019 (2019 Abu Dhabi GP), Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Image credit to LAT/Sutton Images. Abu Dhabi GP Preview. Abu Dhabi GP 2020.
Qualifying: Hamilton breaks lap record to claim Abu Dhabi GP pole
Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton claimed the final pole position of the year in qualifying at the Abu Dhabi GP.
The six-time World Champion was quickest on the initial Q3 flyers with a 1:34.828 with the Briton shaving a few hundredths off in his final hot lap to seal the pole of a 1:34.779.
Valtteri Bottas qualified second and 0.194 seconds off of Hamilton’s Abu Dhabi pole benchmark, but will start at the rear due to power-unit changes.
This means Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen will start on the front-row alongside Hamilton having posted the third fastest time, 0.360 adrift of Hamilton’s Abu Dhabi pole time.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc edged out team-mate Sebastian Vettel to fourth despite the former not reaching the line in time to start his final flyer.
The Monegasque-youngster complained of Vettel slowing in-front, although Vettel himself was also backed up as drivers ahead prepared for their final hot laps.
Vettel was unable to improve on his flyer and wound up 0.560 seconds adrift of Hamilton’s Abu Dhabi pole benchmark.
Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon qualified sixth quickest and was 0.903 seconds off of Hamilton’s Abu Dhabi pole time.
All of the top six runners will start the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the C4 medium rubber, except for Vettel who posted his Q2 time on the C5 soft compounds.
McLaren’s Lando Norris won the best-of-the-rest honours with the seventh fastest time, beating Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo by only two hundredths of a second.
The oher McLaren of Carlos Sainz was a further three-thousandths down in ninth, with Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg completing the top ten.
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez was pipped at the last moment in Q2 by Hulkenberg to qualify 11th, although the Mexican will start tenth due to the aforementioned penalty of Bottas, while Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly was 12th.
Lance Stroll qualified 13th in the other Racing Point and in-front of Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat who was 14th and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who took 15th.
The other Ferrari-powered VF-19 Haas of Romain Grosjean was the quickest of the Q1 eliminatees in 16th and ahead of Alfa Romeo Racing duo Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen who were 17th and 18th respectively.
The two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica brought up the rear with the former impressively out-qualifying his team-mate in all sessions throughout the 2019 campaign.
The aforementioned Bottas will start at the back of the grid due to power-unit component changes.
The Top Three
Pole Position – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “It’s been such a long road to try and get this pole position. Yesterday was quite wobbly so I had to regroup overnight and come back focused.”
2nd – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “As a team it’s been a really strong day, and we saw in qualifying we had a good pace. In any case, I’m going to start last, so we’ll take that fighting spirit tomorrow.”
3rd – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “I think today was the best we could do, we all know Mercedes is quite dominant here. I think still a lot of chances for tomorrow, and we’ll see what happens.”
Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2019 Provisional Starting Grid
| POS | DRIVER | CAR | GAP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1m34.779s |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda | 0.360s |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Scuderia Ferrari | 0.440s |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Scuderia Ferrari | 0.560s |
| 5 | Alexander Albon | Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda | 0.903s |
| 6 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault F1 Team | 1.657s |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault F1 Team | 1.677s |
| 8 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | McLaren-Renault F1 Team | 1.680s |
| 9 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault F1 Team | 1.931s |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team | 2.276s |
| 11 | Pierre Gasly | Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda | 2.310s |
| 12 | Lance Stroll | SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team | 2.324s |
| 13 | Daniil Kvyat | Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda | 2.362s |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas F1 Team | 2.475s |
| 15 | Romain Grosjean | Haas F1 Team | 3.272s |
| 16 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo Racing | 3.335s |
| 17 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo Racing | 3.604s |
| 18 | George Russell | ROKiT Williams Racing | 3.938s |
| 19 | Robert Kubica | ROKiT Williams Racing | 4.457s |
| 20 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport | 0.194s |
Earlier in Free Practice 3, Verstappen pipped Hamilton as the quickest of the session with Bottas third, Albon fourth and Vettel completing the top five.
You can see the full Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2019 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1020/abu-dhabi/practice-3.html
You can catch up on Free Practice 1 and 2 Reports, F1 Newsbites – Abu Dhabi GP Edition as well as this weekend’s race preview at the following links:
@ValtteriBottas tops #AbuDhabiGP FP2, tangles with @RGrosjean. #F1
Bottas tops #AbuDhabiGP FP1 as Vettel crashes. #F1 @ymcofficial
F1 Newsbites – Abu Dhabi GP Edition.
