Abu Dhabi qualifying: Bottas beats Hamilton to pole

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas will start the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in pole position after edging out team-mate Lewis Hamilton in Saturday's qualifying circuit at the Yas Marina, with Sebastian Vettel ending the day in third spot.

The Finn put in a blistering lap of 1.36.231 at the beginning of Q3 and despite Hamilton's best efforts, he couldn't compete with the time of his colleague, losing grip with every turn and had to settle for second, two tenths of a second down.

Bottas will be hoping for a better outcome than in Brazil, where he also secured pole but was beaten in the race by Sebastian Vettel, whose Ferrari was slightly off the pace, and will be hoping to close the time gap in the race proper.

Elsewhere, Daniel Ricciardo was fastest of the Red Bull cars, just edging the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen down into fifth spot. A frustrated Max Verstappen was down in sixth.

Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, failed to make it to Q3, being pushed down into 11th spot courtesy of a flying lap from Felipe Massa, driving in his final Grand Prix of his career.

Overall, Mercedes has proven themselves to be superior once again and will be the team to beat as the curtain comes down on the 2017 F1 campaign.

BREAKING: @ValtteriBottas will start Sunday’s #AbuDhabiGP from pole!

That’s the Finn’s 4th P1 in #Quali this year ???? Hamilton finishes second, Vettel third#F1 ???????? pic.twitter.com/Lf3oA0n7yh — Formula 1 (@F1) November 25, 2017

INITIAL CLASSIFICATION (END OF QUALIFYING): @ValtteriBottas claims his fourth career pole #AbuDhabiGP ???????? #Quali #F1 pic.twitter.com/GvPS566WFY — Formula 1 (@F1) November 25, 2017