Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton 'pushing the limits' as he delights in yet another pole position

The world champion steered his Mercedes onto pole for the 11th time this season

The way things have been going of late, it’s almost easy to forget just what a huge challenge Ferrari presented to Mercedes at several points this year.

Under the lights of Abu Dhabi this evening, it looked like old times as Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in their Mercedes fought each other for pole position, leaving Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen breathless in third and fourth places in their Ferraris, as the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, which have been so quick in the last two races, struggling in fifth and sixth.

In the end it was Hamilton who got the job done best, for the 83rd time in his career and the 11th this season. For the newly crowned five-time world champion, who has won 50 of the last 99 grands prix, it was the 52nd pole in the last 100.

And yet things had not looked too rosy for Mercedes after the first qualifying session, when Vettel had headed Bottas and Hamilton, 1m 36.775s to 1m 36.789s and 1m 36.828s.

“Q1 was really tight and I thought we had more of a chance,” Vettel admitted. But somehow that performance edge could not be sustained.

Switching from the fastest hypersoft Pirelli tyres to the more durable ultrasofts for Q2, in which drivers must start the race on the tyres on which they qualify, Hamilton went to the front, with a very strong lap of 1m 35.693s. Verstappen was second with 1m 36.114s, as Vettel fell back on 1m 36.345s and Bottas to 1m 36.392s, all of them on the same rubber.

Hamilton continued to set a remorseless pace at the start of Q3as Mercedes turned up the wick, his first run yielding 1m 35.295s when he went back to the hypersofts that all of the drivers used, and now Bottas was initially his closest challenger on 1m 35.419s. But there was a glimmer of hope for Vettel as he pushed ahead of the Finn with 1m 35.352s.

Bottas, who incredibly has yet to win a race this year, pushed really hard on his second run and was actually up on Hamilton’s time after the first two sectors, but the Briton had a really good third sector and that settled the pole in his favour as he made an improvement to 1m 34.794s. Bottas went back ahead of Vettel, however, with 1m 34.956s. The German’s lap looked good for the first two sectors, but came apart thereafter and he dropped to third with 1m 35.125s. Raikkonen improved slightly to 1m 35.365s, but as Ricciardo also trimmed a little off his time to 1m 35.401s, Verstappen stayed on 1m 35.589s, looking curiously subdued.

It was Mercedes’ fifth consecutive front-row lockout here. Hamilton kissed his car as he alighted, and admitted that it was an emotional moment.

Hamilton comfortably steered his Mercedes onto pole (EPA)

“It’s the last time I will do qualifying in this car,” he explained. “We’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster together this year, and I feel closer to it than to any of my other cars.

“This was a great qualifying session, and today it was so much fun to be able to express yourself and your car as much as you want. There is no better feeling.

“Honestly, I never say anything is a perfect lap. My first lap was not spectacular, there were a couple of excursions and some movement of the car’s rear end, but the second one got more aggressive and the last sector was the killer for me. It’s not easy to do that from one lap to another.

“After clinching the title I wanted to continue to push the limits and boundaries and I want to finish the season on a high and then continue to exploit that foundation to give us a strong to start to next year. I’m definitely happy with how it’s gone this year, and I’m really happy with today. It’s great to end the season with a 1-2 in qualifying.”

Bottas, again, was disappointed, but second was still a boost after recent races.

“For sure I was aiming for pole,” he said. “I got it here last year, but couldn’t repeat that. First of all, Lewis had quite a nice lap, so I was impressed with that. On my second run there was definitely some track improvement but he got a more complete lap in the end. I think I lost time in the third sector, in Turns 17 and 18. It was difficult to get it right. Pole was possible today, but Lewis did a better job.” As Hamilton shook hands with Vettel’s mechanics, the German smiled and admitted that Ferrari didn’t quite have the pace in qualifying to challenge the Silver Arrows.

Hamilton was delighted afterwards (AFP/Getty Images)

“It didn’t go my way so I guess he enjoyed it a little bit more,” he said as he watched that little bit of sportsmanship. “But I’m looking forward to getting into the car for last time tomorrow, and we’ll give it everything we have.

“I’m quite confident, and it’s going to be a very long race. Of course I would have liked to be on the front row but that was not the case, but we’ll fight as hard as we can and on raceday anything can happen. Let’s see what we can do.”

Both Hamilton and Vettel expect the Red Bulls to be more competitive tomorrow.

“They’ll be strong,” Hamilton said, “They always are in the race. They struggle to keep up with the pace we deliver in quali but in the race they come back, so I’m sure they’ll be there, but this is not that easy a circuit on which to overtake. Nevertheless, I hope they have strong finish to the year.”