QUALIFYING REPORT
Ricciardo said, “We’ve got to try
something. It seems to be a bit of a
trend this year, if we’re in a position to
qualify on a different tyre we’re try and
see if it gives us an opportunity.”
“I was pretty slow starting the
qualifying session but Q3, when it
matters, I put in some good times. Third
was the target, hopefully we can be
somewhere up here at the end of the
race,” added the Red Bull driver.
Sebastian Vettel ended the morning
FP3 session fastest, but that form did
not carry over for him as he could only
mange fifth when it mattered, while his
teammate Kimi Raikkonen was fourth
fastest, thus ending the season having
out-qualified the German 11 to 10.
Max Verstappen looked good for a
top three time early in the session, his
supersoft time was only half a second
off the top time in Q2 set with ultrasofts.
But he did not manage to hook it all up
in his final run of Q3 and aborted the
lap. He was sixth fastest.
As has become custom of late,
Force India were best of the rest with
Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez
seventh and eighth on the grid.
Fernando Alonso was ninth
quickest in the McLaren, ahead of
Felipe Massa in the Williams who would
start his final grand prix from tenth.
McLaren’s Jenson Button, who is
also expected to retire from F1 after the
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, would line-up
12th on the grid for his final race.