Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRace weekend

Rosberg continues qualifying run with Abu Dhabi pole

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Nico Rosberg took pole position for the sixth race in a row with a stunning final lap in qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton had set the provisional pole position time with his final attempt to knock Rosberg down to second place, but his team-mate responded with two hugely impressive final sectors to beat Hamilton by nearly 0.4s. It completes a remarkable turnaround from Rosberg this season, who had qualified on pole only once prior to the Japanese Grand Prix, with Hamilton doing so on 11 occasions.

Kimi Raikkonen will start from third place after he pipped Sergio Perez on his final attempt, but it was a bittersweet session from Ferrari as a strategic error saw Sebastian Vettel drop out in the first part of qualifying after the team miscalculated the cut-off time.

Perez's impressive performance will ensure he lines up on the second row ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas, with Nico Hulkenberg, Felipe Massa, Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz rounding out the top ten.

Q2 saw the two Toro Rossos fighting it out for the final place in the last part of qualifying, with Sainz edging out Max Verstappen by less than 0.04s. Jenson Button enjoyed a more competitive qualifying than recent races to take 12th place - within 0.2s of Q3, ahead of Pastor Maldonado and Felipe Nasr.

Romain Grosjean had a frustrating session, with a technical issue confining him to the pits until the closing moments. Though Grosjean was sent out with just enough time to start a lap - prompting the team to tell him to drive flat out to the line - he promptly stopped on track on the long straight after Turn 7.

Vettel was the shock casualty of Q1 as he inexplicably backed off on his final lap having switched to supersoft tyres, cruising through the middle sector while drivers around him improved. Although Fernando Alonso had to pit due to a puncture on his final lap, Vettel was knocked out by late improvements from Grosjean and Nasr.

With Alonso dropping out in 17th place having been set to progress, Marcus Ericsson was also eliminated after his team told him he had to pit due to a problem with his Sauber, preventing him from completing his final lap. Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi will make up the back row of the grid, with Stevens beating his Manor team-mate by over 1.1s.

AS IT HAPPENED: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Qualifying

Between the lines at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:41.111	1:40.979	1:40.237
02	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:40.974	1:40.758	1:40.614
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:42.500	1:41.612	1:41.051
04	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:41.983	1:41.560	1:41.184
05	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:42.275	1:41.830	1:41.444
06	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:42.608	1:41.868	1:41.656
07	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1:42.540	1:42.328	1:41.686
08	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:42.303	1:42.349	1:41.759
09	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:41.996	1:41.925	1:41.933
10	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:42.911	1:42.482	1:42.708
11	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:42.889	1:42.521
12	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:42.570	1:42.668
13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:42.929	1:42.807
14	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:42.893	1:43.614
15	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:42.585
16	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:42.941
17	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:43.187
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:43.838
19	Will Stevens	Manor	1:46.297
20	Roberto Merhi	Manor	1:47.434

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.