F1 2017: Bottas Beats Hamilton In The Final Pole At Abu Dhabi GP

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas took the pole in the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, beating teammate Lewis Hamilton to the top spot. It was a close finish for Bottas as he took his fourth career pole by a lead of 0.172 seconds over the 2017 Formula 1 world champion Hamilton. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo took third and fourth spots, and will be starting in the second row at the Yas Marina circuit.

Hamilton secured the fastest positions throughout free practice and remained in the top spot in Q2 as well. Bottas, however, was slightly faster than his teammate in Q1 and was faster than Hamilton in Q3 as well, taking the provisional pole with a lap time of 1m36.231 seconds. Neither Mercedes drivers improved on their second tries.

Meanwhile, Vettel was third fastest on the grid with a fastest lap time of 1m36.777 seconds in Q3, finishing about four tenths lower than the Mercedes drivers. Ricciardo finished fourth after a last minute finish ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by 0.026 seconds. Max Verstappen finished below the second Ferrari with a gap of 0.353 seconds.

Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh, about a tenth of a second clear of Force India's Sergio Perez. Esteban Ocon finished ninth, 0.023 seconds lower than the teammate while Williams F1's Felipe Massa completed the tenth spot.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso will start 11th in the final race of the season, followed by Carlos Sainz and Stoffel Vandoorne. Kevin Magnussen of Haas completed 14th, about a second ahead of Lance Stroll, who made it to Q2 for Williams for the eighth time this season. The bottom places were taken by Romain Grosjean at 16th and Pascal Wehrlein at 17th, followed by teammate Marcus Ericsson at 19th. Torro Rosso rookie Brendon Hartley will be starting at the end of the grid in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.