Simply Abu Dhabi XXXVI

6 6 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I LeClerc at the end despite the latter tagging the same barriers as teammate Vettel in the first session. Vettel was 0.4s off the pace in fourth from Verstappen who finished half a second off the best time. "The car felt okay but they still have some work to do," Verstappen said before sling-shotting his Red Bull to fastest outright in the final practice session the following afternoon. Edging out the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Bottas, Verstappen produced his fastest lap of the weekend to beat Lewis by 0.074s. His teammate, Albon was fourth behind the Mercedes pair, three tenths slower than Verstappen, while Ferrari, who have been on pole for six of the previous eight races, were fifth and sixth. Although they have wrapped up both 2019 titles, Mercedes have only secured one pole in an extremely competitive nine races but all that changed on Qualifying day at Yas Marina. QUALIFYING: Lewis Hamilton ended his nine-race pole position drought to ensure that he would start from the head of grid for 2019’s big finale. Hamilton's four-month wait for just the fifth pole position of his title-winning year was over after a brilliant performance which saw him outpace Bottas by 0.2 seconds with a record time of 1:34.779. Verstappen was third but moved up to the front row next to Hamilton after the Bottas penalty was applied which resulted in the Finn starting from last place due to the double engine change. Four poles had been the fewest for a title-winning driver in a season since Jenson Button in 2009 but Hamilton had always looked favourite this weekend to add a fifth to his 2019 tally. Charles LeClerc out-qualified Sebastian Vettel to take what becomes third, despite being timed out for the final lap as cars slowed to create gaps ahead of him. Vettel’s Ferrari was immediately ahead. Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto admitted the Scuderia "messed up" and they started alongside each other in third and fourth but on different strategies with Vettel on the faster, soft compound tyre, while LeClerc was on the longer lasting mediums. Mercedes maintained its record of finishing first and second in every Abu Dhabi qualifying since the current hybrid engines were introduced and with a new engine for just this final race, Bottas was able to push harder than anyone else on the grid, as the lights went out The chief beneficiary of course was 22-year-old Verstappen who started alongside Hamilton at the head of the field for just the third time in his F1 career.