F1 Quals: Abu Dhabi 2015

Here's the provisional grid for the 2015 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi.  Stop me if you've heard this one before:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:41.111	1:40.979	1:40.237
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:40.974	1:40.758	1:40.614
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:42.500	1:41.612	1:41.051
4	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:41.983	1:41.560	1:41.184
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:42.275	1:41.830	1:41.444
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:42.608	1:41.868	1:41.656
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:41.996	1:41.925	1:41.686
8	Felipe Not Nasr Massa	Williams	1:42.303	1:42.349	1:41.759
9	Kid Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	1:42.540	1:42.328	1:41.933
10	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:42.911	1:42.482	1:42.708
11	Embryo Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:42.889	1:42.521
12	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:42.570	1:42.668
13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:42.929	1:42.807
14	Felipe Not Massa Nasr	Sauber	1:42.896	1:43.614
15	Lettuce Grosjean	Lotus	1:42.585	No Time
16	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:42.941
17	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:43.187
18	Sony Ericsson	Sauber	1:43.838
19	Will Stevens	Marussia	1:46.297
20	Roberto Merhi	Marussia	1:47.434

Yup, it's another Mercedes 1-2, with Rosberg taking his sixth pole in a row.  The big news, though, is that Ferrari's Seb Vettel never made it out of Q1.  The team told him that he had gone fast enough to make it to Q2, so he backed out of his final flying lap to preserve tires... and then Jenson Button's McLaren bumped him.  Oy.

Up at the front, Lewis Hamilton actually was quickest in Q1 and Q2; Rosberg just killed it in Q3, though, and that's the only one that really matters.  There's actually a chance that the nearly .40 sec gap will increase, as Hamilton may have his fastest lap thrown out for violating track limits.  He'd still be in 2nd, though.

Other than all that, however, it was pretty much bog-standard.  Which is what I expect Sunday's race to be as well.  But who knows?  Maybe it'll rain.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:23 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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