With no championships to play for in the final weekend of the season in Abu Dhabi, Sunday’s Grand Prix is set to be a straight up pride fight for victory. And the driver who put himself in the best possible position for that fight in Saturday’s qualifying session was Lewis Hamilton, who took pole position at Yas Marina with a new track record of 1m 34.794s, ahead of his Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas.
The fans were out in force for home favourite Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone on Saturday afternoon – but in the end it was Mercedes’ other driver who stole the show. In an enthralling qualifying session, Valtteri Bottas beat Hamilton to pole position by just 0.006s – the smallest margin in almost a decade.
It was the kind of race that Max Verstappen’s loyal fanbase, who had travelled in their thousands to Austria, had dreamed off. Replicating his superb victory of 12 months ago looked unlikely when the Red Bull driver fell from second to seventh at the start, but after the pitstops, Verstappen said his car “really came alive” as he delivered a brilliant fightback to take his first victory of the season.
