The Formula One season is reaching its finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but there was no sense this end-of-term event was being taken lightly. There was a party atmosphere under the lights around the Yas Marina circuit but for Valtteri Bottas, who took pole, there was to be no lack of focus. If the Finn is in any way demob happy after a long, tough season, he did not show it, nailing a superb lap to put his Mercedes team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, into second place.

Both men have a point to make. Hamilton has won his fourth world championship but has been explicit in his desire to end the season strongly and avoid a repeat of his 2015 title when he took it easy and lost momentum going into the following season.

After crashing in qualifying at the last round in Brazil, coming back in Abu Dhabi was the aim. “When you finish off strong it makes it easier to start strong the following season, so that’s really my goal,” he said.

Bottas’s concerns were more pressing. He has had a lacklustre second half of the season, outqualified and outraced by his team-mate, and has not won since the ninth round in Austria. Mercedes have re-signed him for next season but he knows to have any chance of turning it into a longer-term drive he needs to step up.

Pole in Brazil, his first since Austria, was a good start and his second in succession in Abu Dhabi is a further fillip. While the Mercedes has been dominant over the single-lap discipline it has been Hamilton who has held sway over his team-mate, who now needs to ensure he takes advantage of it at Yas Marina. He has converted only one of his four career poles into a win and the Finn was beaten off the line in Brazil by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and will not want a repeat experience.

“It was a very clean session and I managed to find time every run,” Bottas said. “The car was feeling much better than any point of the weekend and that allowed me to work on the details. It was enough for pole so I’m really happy. I was so gutted in Brazil to be on pole and missing out on the win. I have a clear target for tomorrow.”

Bottas had gone quickest in Q1, three-hundredths ahead of Hamilton, but the British driver had the edge in Q2 and looked on course for his 12th pole of the season. However Bottas then pulled out his best run of the weekend and improved again for the first quick lap in Q3. With a track record time of 1min 36.231sec he was almost two-tenths clear of Hamilton and neither driver could go quicker on their second hot laps.

Hamilton, wearing a gold helmet this weekend to mark his fourth title, said he had given his all and recognised how important the performance was to his team-mate. “I gave it everything I could but it was on the knife-edge and ultimately Valtteri did the better job,” he said. “It’s great to see to him performing at this level, particularly at the end of the season, which puts him in a great position for next year.”

It was a fair assessment. When it mattered Bottas’s run was as good as he managed all season and while there was little to choose between the Mercedes drivers, the Finn held the line to perfection, especially in the difficult slow-speed, technical final sector where Hamilton was marginally slower. He went ever so slightly wide on the final corner, enough to cost him pole.

For Mercedes, who have already sealed their fourth constructors’ championship, it was further evidence of the dominance they have shown over a single lap. They have 15 poles this season and now four front-row lockouts, making it a remarkable 50 in total.

Always able to turn up the engine for qualifying, Mercedes seemed to be on another level altogether – an ominous sign for their rivals looking toward next season. Vettel, in third, was a of a second five-tenths back from Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull in fourth a further two-tenths down.

Both Mercedes drivers want to bring down the curtain with a win but it is Bottas who has more to prove and an outside chance of taking second place in the championship. He is 22 points behind Vettel and to overtake him he must win with the German finishing ninth or lower.

Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari was in fifth, in front of Max Verstappen. Renault’s Nico Hülkenberg was in seventh, with the Force India’s of Sergio Pérez and Esteban Ocon in eighth and ninth. Felipe Massa in likely his last race in F1 and his final outing for Williams, did well to put his car into Q3 and finished in 10th place.

Fernando Alonso was in 11th, with his McLaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne in 13th. Carlos Sainz Jr in the Renault was in 12th, with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen in 14th, in front of the second Williams of Lance Stroll.

Romain Grosjean in the Haas went out in Q1 in 15th place in front of the Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly, whose team-mate Brendon Hartley finished in 20th. The Sauber’s of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson were in 18th and 19th respectively.

Off track, with the proposed engine regulation changes for 2021 still provoking controversy, the president of the FIA, Jean Todt, has responded to Ferrari’s threats that they might leave F1 if the reforms are instigated.

“Ferrari have been part of every Formula One championship since it started, so I do not want to see them leave,” he said. “But I am not sure it will be a good thing for Ferrari to exit. It is a unique brand so it will be painful for them not to be involved in the sport.”