Bottas scoops pole position for final round of 2017

11/27/17 • 1 min

Valtteri Bottas was the fastest driver in Q3 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, with the Finnish driver securing pole position for the final race of the season. Lewis Hamilton was just a tenth of a second behind him, leaving the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers to split the second and third row of the grids between them.

Nico Hülkenberg, both Force India drivers and Felipe Massa rounded out the top ten. Fernando Alonso just missed the cut for the top ten shoot-out and had to settle for 11th place. Further back, both the Toro Rosso drivers struggled for pace and dropped out in Q1, with Brendon Hartley the slowest driver in the field. He had an engine penalty lined up anyway, though.

The poor qualifying result puts the pressure on Toro Rosso, however, in one of the only championship battles left - unless they get a good result in the race, they'll drop behind Renault and lose their sixth place in the standings.

See more on Bottas scoops pole position for final round of 2017

See more on Bottas scoops pole position for final round of 2017

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Pirelli reveal rainbow of tyres for 2018

Ahead of the final race of 2017 in Abu Dhabi, Pirelli launched their lineup of tyres for the 2018 season, including two new compounds and extending the range from five to seven levels of hard and softness. The tyres are all one step softer than what we've seen this year, but there's a new superhard tyre that is orange. The hard tyre turns blue, or ice blue, as they call it.

Then come four compounds that we are very familiar with: white mediums, yellow softs, red supersofts and purple ultrasofts. Finally, there's a new pink compound called hypersoft - which was chosen by fans polled by the Italian manufacturer.

Pirelli boss Mario Isola says: "We realised that, under the unique circumstances of this year, some of our 2017 compounds were perhaps conservative: the tyres we have created for 2018 address this, in line with the objective of having around two pit stops at most races."

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Mercedes finish season with 1-2 as Bottas takes victory

Valtteri Bottas converted his pole position into a race victory relatively comfortably, in a final race of the season that was resoundedly disliked as being dull by almost everyone. Lewis Hamilton, who finished second so obviously has some grounds for dissatisfaction, said of Yas Marina: "It's a great, great track but unfortunately it doesn't suit the cars very well."

There was disappointment for Red Bull, as Daniel Ricciardo failed to see the chequered flag, retiring from fourth place with a hydraulic issue. Toro Rosso were also left dejected after losing sixth place in the championship to Renault at the final hurdle - Carlos Sainz retired from the race, but Nico Hülkenberg did just enough in sixth place to help his team beat their rivals.

Felipe Massa finished tenth, picking up a final point on his final race, and he celebrated the result by completing so many donuts on the track that the car disappeared. In the end, though, it was Bottas, Hamilton and Vettel that took to the podium to spray the final champagne of the season.

See more on Mercedes finish season with 1-2 as Bottas takes victory