Nico Rosberg stormed to his sixth pole position in a row and denied Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton a landmark 50th in Formula One’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Saturday.
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In Q2 it was again Hamilton who was fastest shaving another two tenths of his lap time, quickly followed by Rosberg.
Force India’s Sergio Perez was the Mercedes pair’s closest challenger in a surprise third, albeit six-tenths of a second slower than Rosberg’s benchmark.
Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were fifth and seventh.
Hamilton had been fastest in the two earlier sessions and led Rosberg before he reacted to take pole again, as he did before last year’s showdown race, with a stunning show of speed.
Hamilton has still been able to convert some Rosberg poles into race wins, so rest assured the Brit will work hard to get a jump on his teammate once the five lights flash to signal the start of the race. I have the confidence in the vehicle to really push and there is definitely the potential to come away with a great result this weekend.
But Mercedes say the difference is more related to the amount of time the drivers can spend in various engine settings, rather than ultimate performance.
“I knew that we’d made a change [before Singapore] but I didn’t really think it was going to make a huge difference”, he said.
“Whoever’s up ahead will have the best strategy and the guy behind will have the second-best strategy”, said Hamilton.
“As a Team we didn’t do the right decision today and that has a big effect”.
“I just feel there are ways you do things in McLaren and there’s things that you do inside McLaren that are or are not acceptable”.
“In hindsight, once Nico had pitted I would have backed off a bit and made those tires go a lot longer”, Hamilton said.
But asked what he thought had prompted the late turnaround in fortunes, the 30-year-old German, replied: “There’s no revival, we haven’t reinvented anything it’s just progress and that’s it”. “You just keep pushing and pushing and hoping for better, but we lost the advantage at Suzuka and from then onwards”. A baffling mistake by both driver and team.
Others pointed the finger at “mischief-making” by Red Bull principal Christian Horner and Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who is also close to Lauda, as part of tough negotiations over engines.
McLaren-Honda’s Jenson Button was next up in 12th, ahead of Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado and the Sauber of Felipe Nasr.
Will Fernando Alonso take a sabbatical in 2016? “I’ve improvements to make with the vehicle, but I’m sure we’ll get there”.
He clocked a time of 1m 40.237s in Q3 at the Yas Marina circuit.
But if money cannot buy happiness (or love), nor it seems can it buy a decent circuit.
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“Next year can come any moment – it could start tomorrow, I don’t need any holidays – and it is great to end the season like this”.
