Mercedes' Nico Rosberg clinched his sixth pole position after finishing as the fastest driver in the Abu Dhabi qualifying session on Saturday. Rosberg's team mate, Lewis Hamilton will start the final F1 race of the season in second place. Rosberg and Hamilton, who have been the standout drivers in the championship, finished with a best timing of 1m 40.237s and 1m 40.614s in Abu Dhabi.
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen finished with a timing of 1m 41.051s, which will see him start the race in third position while Force India's Sergio Perez continued his impressive 2015 Formula One season as he was the fourth fastest in qualifying.
However, Sebastian Vettel was the biggest disappointment as he is currently in third position in the drivers' championship and will start from 16th position in the grid. It might be a tough task for Vettel to finish the season on a high with a podium finish.
Rosberg and Hamilton are the obvious favourites to clinch the Abu Dhabi GP. Though Hamilton has won the F1 drivers' title, Rosberg has won the last two F1 races in Brazil and Mexico. Rosberg will be eager to sign off the season with three straight victories.
"Primarily I would just like to win the race, because it's a great feeling to win and it would also give my whole crew and the team a great end to the season and a good reason to party then tomorrow night. That would be awesome, to all have a good time together. So that's primarily on my mind. Of course, though, whatever we learn this year as well helps going into next year, so it would be great finishing on a high," said Rosberg.
Hamilton has faced some problems with his car of late as a result of which he has not been able to deliver the goods in a dominant manner, but the Mercedes' driver hopes to come up with a better race on Sunday. Hamilton has won 10 races in the season and can make it 11 with a victory in Abu Dhabi.
"Generally it gets a little bit better in the race but it's been for a while now. Generally just struggling on the edge with the car. It was a lot more comfortable at the beginning of the year for me and as I said, coming into this weekend I tried to make some changes. It disadvantaged myself a little bit maybe with one of the things I took off the car which was of benefit. I tried to get around it but at the end of the day it wasn't good enough," said Hamilton.
Irrespective of who wins the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, Mercedes were the best team in the season. One-two podium finish will be a fitting end for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi.
Where to watch live
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix F1 race is scheduled for 5pm local time, 6:30pm IST, 1pm GMT, 8am ET.
Country | TV Broadcaster |
India | Star Sports 4, Star Sports HD 4 |
US | NBC Sports |
Canada | TSN 2 |
United Kingdom | Sky Sports F1, Sky Sports F1 HD |
Middle East and North Africa | Bein Sports Arabia |
Germany, Italy | Sky Sport |
France | Canal+ |
Asia | Fox Sports |
Country | Online links |
India | Star Sports Online |
US | NBC Sports Online |
UK | Watch Sky Sports |
Middle East | BeIN Sports Connect |
Asia | Fox Sports Online |
Italy | Sky Go Italy |
Germany | Sky Go Germany |