Sixth pole in succession for Rosberg in Abu Dhabi finale

Nico Rosberg won an Abu Dhabi qualifying battle with Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton on Saturday to take his sixth successive pole position.

Hamilton, the 30-year-old Mercedes driver from Hertfordshire, will line-up on the front row for the 18th time in 19 races this season – the 90th time he has started in the top two throughout his career to date.

The German, who races with No. 6 on his vehicle, left the best to last with a flying lap under the Yas Marina floodlights that knocked the triple world champion off the top slot right at the finish.

Rosberg and Hamilton are followed on the grid by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in P3, Force India’s Sergio Perez in P4, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo in P5, and then Williams’ Valtteri Bottas in P6.

Jenson Button was an encouraging 11th fastest for McLaren-Honda, just 1.6secs off the pace, while team-mate Fernando Alonso was down in 16th after being held up in the final part of his flying lap.

Rosberg said on Friday that he would be handicapped this weekend by an engine that is higher on mileage than Hamilton’s.

In the wake of his defeat to Rosberg in the Brazilian Grand Prix – his second in succession at the hands of his team-mate – the Englishman cryptically suggested changes to the auto since September’s Singapore GP had played their part in his relative struggles.

Mercedes AMG’s Nico Rosberg says that he isn’t doing anything radically different to before, as the German driver has turned his season form around to take six consecutive pole positions.

“I am quicker at the moment and I am very pleased about that”.

British reserve driver Jolyon Palmer, who is due to replace departing Frenchman Romain Grosjean next season, had to sit out all but the final 12 minutes as the team worked to fix a water leak on his vehicle.

“I’m here to win that 44th race, which I still haven’t done, so it’s cool how it all kind of ties in”, said Hamilton.

“The vehicle has been handling pretty well all weekend”.

In Q1, Sebastian Vettel was a shock casualty, 0.012s off Maldonado and progressing: “Nothing wrong with the auto”, the Ferrari pilot explained, “we thought that the lap I had on the soft (harder) tyres was quick enough, but in the end it was not”. So we misjudged the situation, a small mistake with big outcome, but the race is tomorrow and lots can happen.