Mercedes
That was a very solid Friday for the Silver Arrows, helped in part by reliability woes suffered by their rivals. Bottas finished on top in both sessions, despite failing to improve on the soft tyres in FP2. Hamilton was narrowly behind his team mate, but both look comfortable here, citing the balance of the W12 as being much improved since Bahrain. But can they convert this form to front row grid slots tomorrow?
Lewis Hamilton – FP1: 1:16.605, P2; FP2: 1:15.561, P2 The team worked very hard to understand what happened in the last race where we were weak and to see if we can try to tweak the car for a better set up. I also think the track has come a little bit more in our direction. We started off with a really good set up today, a few tweaks here and there but no major issues. So far, good pace from us this weekend.
What the teams said – Friday at the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix
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What the teams said - Race day at 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
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Red Bull
He’s threatened all year, but finally at the last time of asking Verstappen grabbed a 2020 pole position. He wasn’t quicker than Mercedes in any particular part of the lap, but was able to extract the maximum from his tyres to nail every single corner and cross the line narrowly ahead. After the first runs in Q3 it looked like Albon was right in that fight at the front, but he faded on his second run and had to make do with fifth.
Max Verstappen, 1st, 1:35.246
“It was a very nice lap. I didn’t really expect to fight for pole today but it is very satisfying and at least we have one pole this year with the dominance Mercedes have had and we can be very pleased for that. Everyone is a bit tired at the end of such a tough season but I think for the mechanics and everyone in the Team this was a great boost. It wasn’t the most straightforward qualifying, of course initially I had my hand stuck under the wheel so I had a poor lap and then after that with the medium tyr