ABU DHABI // Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position for the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to boost his hopes of winning a fourth world title.
The Mercedes-GP driver set a fastest time of 1 minute, 38.755 seconds to claim a 61st pole of his career in Saturday’s qualifying session at Yas Marina Circuit.
Hamilton trails teammate Nico Rosberg by 12 points, and needs to win the race, with the German not finishing on the podium, to claim the title.
Rosberg was second fastest, 0.303 seconds adrift of Hamilton to achieve the feat of qualifying on the front row for every race of the season.
Daniel Ricciardo was best of the rest for Red Bull Racing in third, ahead of the Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, with the second Red Bull of Max Verstappen completing the top six.
The Red Bull team will be on an alternative strategy to Mercedes and Ferrari in the race.
They will start on the supersoft Pirelli tyre, after using them in the second part of qualifying, and they should be able to run a longer first stint in the 55-lap race, compared to their rivals who will be on the fast degrading ultrasoft compound.
Felipe Massa will start his final race in F1 on Sunday, but he showed he still had plenty of speed in qualifying 10th, out-pacing his teammate Valtteri Bottas, who was 11th, for only the fourth time this season.
Jenson Button was 12th in his final qualifying session for McLaren, but was upbeat about starting in the midfield, given he can pick which tyre to start the race with.
It was a poor day for Toro Rosso, who endured their worst qualifying session of 2016, with both cars eliminated in the first session.
Daniil Kvyat was 17th and Carlos Sainz Jr 21st as the pair suffered from a lack of track of time after missing most of Friday practice as the team investigated why Kvyat had suffered two left-rear punctures.
Sunday’s 55-lap race begins at 5pm.
STARTING GRID FOR ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX
1st row
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
Nico Rosberg (Mercedes-GP)
2nd row
Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing)
Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
3rd row
Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing)
4th row
Nico Hülkenberg (Force India)
Sergio Perez (Force India)
5th row
Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
Felipe Massa (Williams)
6th row
Valtteri Bottas (Williams)
Jenson Button (McLaren)
7th row
Esteban Gutierrez (Haas)
Romain Grosjean (Haas)
8th row
Jolyon Palmer (Renault)
Pascal Wehrlein (Manor)
9th row
Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso)
Kevin Magnussen (Renault)
10th row
Felipe Nasr (Sauber)
Estéban Ocon (Manor)
11th row
Carlos Sainz Jr (Toro Rosso)
Marcus Ericsson (Sauber)
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