Valtteri Bottas claimed his fourth Formula 1 pole position to lead a Mercedes front row lock-out for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Bottas earned his second consecutive pole in dramatic fashion after a session-long duel with his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Despite having been beaten by Bottas in the opening segment of qualifying, Hamilton recovered to the top spot in Q2, recording a 1m36.742s and edging Bottas by 0.08 seconds.
Hamilton managed to find a further three tenths in the first run of Q3, but Bottas improved by half a second to snatch provisional pole.
While he was unable to improve on his second timed lap, his 1m36.231s was enough to deny Hamilton a 12th pole of the season, after the Briton was also unable to improve on his final effort.
Sebastian Vettel ended the session half a second adrift of the lead Mercedes. He did, however, manage to beat his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in Q3, as the Finn was demoted off of the second row by a late charge from Daniel Ricciardo.
Ricciardo and Red Bull seemed destined for the third row having been around one second off the pace throughout qualifying.
Both Ricciardo and Max Verstappen improved their times at the chequered flag in Q3. While Verstappen remained nearly 1.1s behind Bottas, Ricciardo improved from a provisional sixth to fourth.
Nico Hulkenberg won the race for best-of-the-rest status. He qualified seventh, ahead of the two Force India’s of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, who were in turn separated by 0.023s.
Felipe Massa qualified tenth for his final F1 race. He progressed to Q3 with a late lap to demote Fernando Alonso into 11th, after the Spaniard failed to improve in his final run in Q2.
In Q1, it was the Williams of Lance Stroll who provided a late shuffle. His last effort in the first part of qualifying allowed him to edge into Q2 by 0.023s, at the expense of Romain Grosjean.
Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley were also eliminated in Q1. The session did, however, mark the first time in which Gasly out-qualified Hartley. They ended the evening 17th and 20th respectively.
