What a tense and emotional session Abu Dhabi qualifying session. For Massa and Button this will be their last Formula 1 qualifying session. For Jenson it is 305th Grand Prix weekend. He spent nearly a year of his life qualifying Formula 1 cars!

But all eyes were on the two main protagonists of Lewis Hamilton the chaser and Nico Rosberg the incumbent leader of the championship. From the first laps of FP1 on Friday, Lewis Hamilton has set the pace. There is something about this circuit that means he just clicks. His driving style seems to suit the point and squirt nature of the corners. He has been supreme throughout and has no doubt made Nico question himself. But for Rosberg, all he needs is a smooth sensible weekend and for his title hopes, so far so good. He only needs to keep finishing second behind Lewis and that is what he has done in qualifying at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi.

Qualifying 1

Despite Lewis Hamilton’s superiority this weekend, Nico Rosberg has been there at each step of the way. The Mercedes AMG has enough in hand that he does not need to stress the car or its engine and so in Qualifying 1, when Hamilton laid down a marker, Rosberg was there to follow it up. The real story of Q1 was Pascal Wehrlein of Manor making it into Q2 and Carlos Sainz Jr qualifying on the back row.

Qualifying 2

Into the second session and the story was much the same and again the story was further back. Would Jenson Button manage to drag his McLaren into the top 10? Sadly he couldn’t quite make it and will start the race in 12th place. Alonso will start in 9th having beaten his team mate at the death. Bottas tried to cover off his 10th place by running the Ultrasofts but this was not enough and he was knocked out.

Qualifying 3

Qualifying three started and immediately all the top runners were on track trying to set a time quick enough for a good grid position in the race. Ultima tely though it ended exactly the way the form book suggested it would. Lewis is on pole, with Nico second and then the Ferraris and Red Bulls are scrapping for the next few places. Rosberg will be pleased to see that Verstappen is not in third and therefore in a position to attack him on the opening lap. But then Ricciardo is, so which is better or worse for Rosberg’s Championship hopes?

We have our fingers crossed for a clean and exciting race tomorrow for all the neutrals.