Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) will start from pole Sunday on the last grand prix of the season in Abu Dhabi. The Briton beat his teammate, German Nico Rosberg of 0 “303.
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) will start from pole position for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Formula 1, decisive for the world title on Sunday night next to his teammate Nico Rosberg leading the championship. It’s the 61st pole position Hamilton will take the start of the race with 12 points behind Rosberg in the standings of the world Championship. The German will definitely finish on the podium if the Englishman wins.
“I’ve already done half the job. The goal is always the same, to win this race “, reacted Hamilton after his 12th ” pole “ of the 2016 season (against eight Rosberg). At the end of the qualifying session, the two rivals have improved their lap three tenths of a second, one after another, in their final flying lap and the gap between them remained the same after their first attempt at early Q3: three-tenths.
“In total control”
“I could not go faster today but it does not change my objective on Sunday: win the race,” said Rosberg, obviously a bit disappointed with his performance on the Yas Marina circuit where he was a third pole straight position, after those of 2014 and 2015. last year, he even won, but it did not matter because Hamilton was already champion.
“I was in total control”, also said Hamilton, only driver to be spent Saturday in the bar of the minute and 39 seconds per lap (1: 38,755) to 202 km / h average. With a Mercedes “very well regulated, the result of the incredible work done by my engineers and my mechanics,” added the triple world champion. This will be the 105th time that it starts on the first line in 188 F1 GP since 2007.
“Lewis did a really amazing job, we can not say anything more” , added Niki Lauda, Non-Executive Chairman of Mercedes-AMG stable and triple world champion in F1, as Hamilton.
Daniel Ricciardo, the third man
On the second line of the grid, the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) will look to play spoilsport enjoying a different strategy: it will start in the super-soft tires while both Arrows before him, will be equipped with a series of ultra-soft tires and will therefore have to stop before him to change.
The two Ferrari drivers, Kimi Raikkonen (4th) and Sebastian Vettel (5th), will be better placed from the Dutch prodigy Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 19, who also wants to spoil the party of Mercedes drivers. One thing is sure, it will not rain in the desert, so only a racing incident, still possible, may disrupt the frontrunner.
The start will be crucial, even for Rosberg as Hamilton, ideally placed to escape in mind, because it must avoid at all costs to be in a chasing pack, amid the Red Bull and Ferrari. On this tour, the German dream of joining the winners his father Keke, a moustachioed Finns, sacred in 1982 in a Williams.
