Hamilton takes last pole of the year at Yas Marina

By setting a time of 1'34'794, a new lap record on the Yas Marina circuit, Lewis Hamilton wins the 83rd pole position of his career, his 11th of the season, and his 4th in the United Arab Emirates. 

The Briton takes a double Mercedes preceding Valtteri Bottas, pole sitter and winner last year, by 0,162s. Note that the German manufacturer has decided to use ventilated rear rims on its W09s this weekend.

Behind the Silver Arrows, we will find the Ferrari de Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. The German and the Finn are respectively 0,331s and 0,571s behind the day's benchmark. Dashing Friday, Red Bull de Daniel Ricciardo et Max Verstappen must be content with 5th and 6th rows, six and eight tenths from the lead.

Follows a trio of French speakers led by Romain Grosjean. The pilot Haas precedes the Sauber of Charles Leclerc and the Force India ofEsteban Ocon. Nico Hulkenberg and Renault complete the Top 10.

Carlos Sainz missing Q3 by a pair of tenths. The Renault driver is ahead of Marcus Ericsson (Sauber), Kevin Magnussen, who suffered a serious wheel lock in his final flying lap, and Sergio Pérez (Force India).

For the last qualifying session of his career F1, Fernando Alonso manages to reach Q2, which is not far from being a feat given the quality of the equipment available at McLaren over the second half of the season. The Spaniard, however, must be satisfied with the 15th time and will therefore stop at 22 pole positions in his career, the last dating back to the 2012 German Grand Prix with Ferrari. 

Q1 wins both Toro Rosso de Brendon Hartley et Pierre Gasly, the Frenchman suffering an engine problem at the very end of the session. They are accompanied in the cart by the McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne, who will therefore not have managed to beat his teammate once in qualifying this season, and the Williams by Sergey Sirotkin and Lance stroll. 

The 2018 final will be followed live with commentary via our live text on CARhebdo.fr from 17:10 p.m., local time (14:10 p.m., in France).

FULL QUALIFYING CLASSIFICATION: @LewisHamilton's dashes to his 83rd career pole #AbuDhabiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/jY3uks32as

- Formula 1 (@ F1) November 24, 2018