Lewis Hamilton on POLE at Abu Dhabi Grand Pix as Ferrari make a mess again

Lewis Hamilton i on pole position for the last Grand Prix of the year in Abu Dhabi, with Bottas starting alongside in second for a Mercedes front row.

Lewis Hamilton may already have been crowned the King of F1 again in 2019, but he hasn’t actually managed a pole position since before the summer break. But he’s put that right in the last F1 race of the 2019 season by taking pole position for Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Alongside Hamilton the front row is team mate Bottas, with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in third alongside Ferrari’s Leclerc.

But Leclerc failed to get to the line to start his final qualifying lap and blamed team mate Vettel, who qualified fifth, for slowing down too much ahead of the last flying lap, but the reality looked to be a cock-up by Ferrari not releasing the two from the pits in time. The story of 2019 for Ferrari.

Alexander Albon starts in sixth for Red Bull, neatly keeping the top three teams in charge of the front three rows after qualifying, with Norris in the McLaren the best of the rest in seventh, Ricciardo in the Renault in eighth, Sainz in the second McLaren in ninth, and Hulkenberg in the second Renault in 10th.

But the race line-up will change a bit as Bottas will start from the back due to a penalty for using too many engine parts – which should make for some interesting watching as he carves his way through – and everyone else, bar Hamilton, moves up a place at the start.