Wolff: Hamilton 'angry and motivated' to hunt Verstappen down

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff says Lewis Hamilton's runner-up performance in qualifying will have wound up his driver and motivated him to hunt down rival Max Verstappen in Sunday's big final in Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton clocked in 0.371s adrift from the Red Bull driver in Saturday's qualifying shootout at Yas Marina, defeated by a flawless performance by Verstappen coupled with a bit of slipstream help by his teammate Sergio Perez.

"They got the tyres in the perfect window in the last run and the tow functioned flawlessly - that's why they're on pole," Wolff told Sky F1 after the thrilling twilight shootout.

The Austrian added that he doubted Hamilton will need a pep talk ahead of Sunday's showdown.

"I think there's nothing you need to say," he said. "I think he's gonna be angry, and that's good, and motivated for tomorrow to just hunt him down.

"We are on the back foot and sometimes you need to see the positive. Sometimes that's not bad as a starting point."

At the outset, Red Bull and Mercedes drivers will be on opposing tyre strategies, with the bulls shod with the soft compound at the start while Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas will launch their race on the more durable medium rubber.

• Read also - Hamilton: 'We just couldn't compete with Max's lap'

On paper, Wolff believes his team has made the better choice.

"I'd much rather be starting on the medium," he said. "We will have a slight disadvantage on the start, I guess, and the first six or seven laps, if [Verstappen] drives fast.

"We can go longer, we can go for an aggressive undercut also, and try to control track position. Overnight we will be running lots of programmes and algorithms."

Wolff took note however of Red Bull's relatively strong race pace simulations on Friday.

"Whoever's gonna be faster tomorrow will win the race, irrespective of who starts on which tyre," he said.

"We just need to need to build on that and recoup, and then hopefully come out on top tomorrow."

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