Hello and welcome to ESPN's live coverage of qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. |
|
Nico Rosberg has been red hot on Saturdays of late -- he arrives in Abu Dhabi with five consecutive pole positions to his name. Can he make that six this weekend? |
|
Daniel Ricciardo the first man out on track, doing so with an almighty slide out of the Red Bull garage. |
|
Hamilton goes straight out on the super-soft tyre, which would suggest that's Mercedes' non-favoured tyre for the race. Makes sense given their struggles on the softest compound compared to Ferrari this year. |
|
Ricciardo posts a 1:43.401 to go top initially in the session. |
|
Hamilton, on the quicker tyre, immediately leaps to the top with a 1:40.974. Rosberg, on the same tyre, slots in a tenth behind his team-mate. |
|
There's an almighty two seconds between the Mercs and Sergio Perez, the first of the non-Mercedes runners and the first of the runners on soft tyres. |
|
Verstappen has also climbed ahead of Ricciardo for fourth position. Toro Rosso has looked quite handy around here at times this weekend. |
|
Grosjean goes into third briefly, but is knocked down by former team-mate Raikkonen. The Finn is 1.7s off Hamilton's time but has the harder compound on. Replays show him having a scruffy exit out of the hairpin. Ferrari's gains on the super-softs yesterday was around 1.7s, though that was before Mercedes was in full qualifying mode. Still, could be one to watch in Q2 and Q3. |
|
Maldonado moves into fourth while a sloppy Bottas lap comes to a close and he crosses in seventh, one place ahead of Fernando Alonso. |
|
The speed traps make for quite staggering reading if you're a McLaren fan. Both cars almost 35km/h down on the top runners. |
|
Replays show Button getting a bit wide on the approach to Turn 3. |
|
Vettel's first lap on the soft was only good enough for ninth, 2.2s off the pace. Raikkonen, still on the softs, improves on his next lap to move 1.5s behind the super-soft times of the Mercedes runners. |
|
Vettel improves to fifth but is still four tenths down on his team-mate. You feel Raikkonen needs a strong performance in qualifying this evening given how he's struggled alongside Vettel for much of this year. |
|
As we approach the final five minutes we should see super-soft runs from the rest of the field and Kvyat is the first man to bite. He's currently 16th and in the drop zone. |
|
Those currently in the drop zone - Kvyat, Button, Ericsson, Stevens and Merhi. |
|
Hulkenberg, on the super-softs, moves into third. He's still a full second down on the Mercedes drivers, however. |
|
Times coming thick and fast. Ricciardo moves back to fourth, Perez climbs to third on the super-soft. Kvyat climbs out of the drop zone and moves to seventh, which you would imagine is good enough for Q2. All of that has seen Alonso tumble down to 14th, with Williams drivers either side of him also in a bit of bother. |
|
But Massa immediately gets himself out of trouble, moving into seventh. Vettel is clearly not happy in 12th and has gone back out on a set of super-soft tyres. He's half a second clear of the drop zone. |
|
Ericsson being told he has a problem. "Ah, come on!" is the reply from the frustrated Swede. |
|
Bottas climbs to ninth despite some traffic through the final corner. Alonso on another lap on the super-soft and throws his car through the Turn 12 and 13 chicane. |
|
The chequered flag falls... |
|
Stevens crosses to out-qualify Merhi... |
|
Button jumps to ninth and relegates Alonso into the drop zone - the Spaniard pits. "I have a puncture.. puncture on the rear," the Spaniard says. |
|
Vettel is in the drop zone and not going to improve! What a disaster for the German. Something has gone horribly wrong there as he had done a personal best in the first sector. |
|
Late flurry of laps from other drivers saw Vettel keep tumbling down. He joins Alonso, Ericsson, Stevens and Merhi in having an early dinner. |
|
Force India must now really fancy its chances of a place on the second row this evening. Big session for Raikkonen as well, third has to be the aim for the Finn with Vettel out of the session. |
|
Replays show Vettel appearing to lose power on the exit of the Turn 7, before the long straight, though there were no error messages on his dashboard that you could see. |
|
|
|
Meanwhile, replays show Alonso seemed to get his puncture just before Turn 12/13 chicane, just where I said he was throwing the car around! He obviously then had to ease off and that's why he is out of the session. |
|
Well, some early drama out of the way and the lights go green for Q2 and Massa's Williams is the first car out on track. |
|
Super-soft tyres from here on in of course. The drivers who progress from this session will start the race with the tyres they set their best Q2 lap on. |
|
Massa sets a 1:42.362 and then runs wide at Turn 1, scuppering his hopes of doing a second hot lap. |
|
Bottas crosses four tenths down on his team-mate before Hamilton jumps into first with a mighty 1:40.758. Both Williams drivers are fastest in a straight line but the car looks horrendous through the corners - it's all over the place. |
|
Rosberg goes into P2, two tenths off Hamilton, while Perez moves into third. |
|
Hulkenberg immediately relegates his team-mate to fourth before Ricciardo moves ahead of both of them - Red Bull really excelling through the final sector. |
|
Replays of that Massa moment show his rear end just completely disappearing as he entered Turn 1. |
|
"Nico we believe you have a deflating front left tyre," Force India tells Hulkenberg. |
|
Verstappen goes into seventh. Toro Rosso team-mate Sainz's first lap sees him go P9. |
|
Problems for Grosjean too, who is being told to bring his Lotus back to the pits slowly. |
|
Kvyat goes sixth so behind Mercedes its Red Bull-Force India-Force India-Red Bull. We haven't seen anything from Raikkonen yet but that could be a spicy battle for the second row. |
|
Grosjean returns to the pits and Maldonado can only manage 12th with his first lap. |
|
Raikkonen currently on his out-lap. |
|
Raikkonen has the track all to himself to try and wrestle third from Ricciardo. |
|
Raikkonen goes third fastest, albeit eight tenths off the lead. |
|
Bottas and Massa are back out for their final attempts. |
|
Grosjean the only man yet to set a time with what appears to be a hydraulic problem. |
|
Bottas improves to fifth. Grosjean gets told to nail a quick out lap but has pulled over at the side of the back straight. |
|
Chequered flag falls so time for those on track to complete their final laps... |
|
Sainz climbs out of the drop zone for now... Jenson Button can't do it for McLaren, missing out by two tenths. Verstappen can't beat Sainz and stays 11th. |
|
Maldonado can only manage 13th. Well then, that's interesting - Perez puts in a very special lap to move into third! |
|
Verstappen, Button, Maldonado, Nasr and Grosjean drop out of that session. |
|
Sainz's effort in Q2 means he has out-qualified Verstappen 10-9 this season. |
|
The light goes green for Q3. Can Force India spoil Raikkonen's P3 party? |
|
Vettel has told the media there was no issue with his car. Says Ferrari just miscalculated the cut-off time. |
|
Everyone bar Sainz out on track. |
|
Perez sets the first time of Q3, a 1:41.184. |
|
Ricciardo splits the two Force Indias in third... |
|
Hamilton puts in a pretty poor lap by his standards, a 1:41.016, only a tenth up on Perez. |
|
Rosberg puts himself onto provisional pole, setting a 1:40.738. |
|
Raikkonen can only manage fourth fastest so Perez stays fourth. Hulkenberg down in seventh but a full second off Perez's pace so you would imagine he didn't get a perfect lap in. |
|
Looks like Hamilton had a horrible amount of understeer through the final sector, which might explain some of his 0.278s gap to Rosberg. |
|
Now the drivers return briefly to the pits before the late runs at the end of the session. |
|
It's Force India's 150th grand prix this weekend. Third on the grid would be a brilliant way to cap it. |
|
We're into the final minute and a half. |
|
Raikkonen matches Hamilton through the first sector... |
|
Ricciardo stays fifth despite a mighty final sector... |
|
Kvyat stays seventh... |
|
Rosberg now puts in a purple middle sector. Bottas can only manage sixth. |
|
Hamilton goes into P1 but Rosberg is yet to cross... |
|
Raikkone leaps ahead of Perez by just under a tenth... |
|
Hulkenberg can't improve on seventh. |
|
Rosberg takes pole position by a huge margin! 0.377s the gap to Hamilton, superb effort from the German. Perez can't beat Raikkonen to third. |
|
"Great job Kimi, nailed the last lap," Ferrari tells Raikkonen. |
|
Perez and Force India can still be very pleased with fourth position there. Great job from the Mexican driver. |
|
So, that run down to Turn 1 will be fascinating once again between the Mercedes drivers.But what can Raikkonen and Perez do from the second row? And can Vettel repeat his 2012 charge through the field after his Q1 elimination? |
|
All will be revealed tomorrow. Thanks as ever for joining us for this session and please join again for Sunday's grand prix. |