Nico Rosberg beat championship rival Lewis Hamilton to the pole position in the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying session.
The German will start the final race of the 2014 season from the pole position after setting a time of of 1:40.480 to edge out Hamilton, who may have had it if not for a mistake, by almost four-tenths of a second.
It was Rosberg who held the early advantage after the first runs in the final part of qualifying, as Lewis ran wide at the penultimate corner and locked up into the final turn. Hamilton has been complaining about his brakes but Niki Lauda brushed these complaints off in true Lauda fashion saying, “These are the same brakes we’ve used all season. Lewis was complaining today but the practice is over now.”
Both drivers improved on their final runs but Hamilton could not find enough time to reach Rosberg and had to watch as Rosberg claimed his 11th pole position of the season.
Williams driver Valterri Bottas, who briefly threatened Hamilton’s second place spot, claimed the third spot on the grid ahead of team mate Felipe Massa who locked out the second row of the grid.
Daniel Ricciardo beat Sebastian Vettel to fifth place in final race as Red Bull team-mates giving the Red Bull team a third row lock out.
Daniil Kvyat was an impressive seventh for Toro Rosso.
McLaren driver Jenson Button only managed eighth place and lamented his disappointment.
The Brit was called back in after heading out on his fast lap due to the fact that he did not have enough fuel on board. “Are you serious?” is all he could mustre over the team radio. Eric Boullier later told Ted Kravitz that there was a fuel pump problem which had caused the issue.
The Ferraris locked out the fourth row of the grid with Kimi Raikkonen 9th and Fernando Alonso, who had to abandon his final lap after running wide at Turn 11, finished 10th.
Kevin Magnussen showed good pace during Q1 but could not manage a quick enough lap in Q2 and failed to make it into the top 10. He will start in 11th place with Jean-Eric Vergne lining up behind him.
Force India duo Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg took 13th and 14th respectively and Adrian Sutil will start behind them in 15th place in what will be his final race for the Sauber F1 Team.
Romain Grosjean very narrowly missed out on making it through to Q2 and set the 16th fastest time. He still has a 20 place grid penalty to serve though so will drop to the back of the grid. As he will only be able to serve 4 places, he’ll have to take a drive through penalty in the early stages of the grand prix.
Esteban Gutierrez was 17th quickest for Sauber, ahead of Pastor Maldonado.
Caterham have the back row of the grid all to themselves with Kamui Kobayashi and Will Stevens rounding out the grid. Rookie Stevens managed to finish half a second behind his team mate.
We are all set for an absolutely EPIC season finale tomorrow at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. Who will take the title of 2014 F1 World Champion? Join us at 2:30pm (GMT +2) tomorrow on Twitter @F1_Madness for live commentary and chat as well as pre and post race analysis. Prepare yourselves for one heck of a Duel in the Desert!
