Qualifying for the final race of the 2018 Formula 1 season ended in the favor of Mercedes AMG Petronas and Lewis Hamilton on pole position but it was an interesting session nonetheless. With the setting sun going down over the horizon, the temperatures also went down and the grip window came up.
The changing grip levels saw a very competitive Sauber and Haas F1 as well as both Red Bull’s and Ferrari’s. A lap delta of 1-1.2s between Hyper and Ultra soft tires also played a role in the Q2 and Q3 session.
In the end, Lewis dug deep and found the extra pace to dip into the 1:34’s and take pole over his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, for the final race of the season. Now it is down to race pace and if Ferrari can challenge the Silver Arrows on Sunday.
Grid
| POS | DRIVER | CAR | TIME | GAP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m34.794s | – |
| 2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1m34.956s | 0.162s |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1m35.125s | 0.331s |
| 4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1m35.365s | 0.571s |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 1m35.401s | 0.607s |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Renault | 1m35.589s | 0.795s |
| 7 | Romain Grosjean | Haas/Ferrari | 1m36.192s | 1.398s |
| 8 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m36.237s | 1.443s |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | Force India/Mercedes | 1m36.540s | 1.746s |
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1m36.542s | 1.748s |
| 11 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1m36.982s | 2.188s |
| 12 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m37.132s | 2.338s |
| 13 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas/Ferrari | 1m37.309s | 2.515s |
| 14 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 1m37.541s | 2.747s |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Renault | 1m37.743s | 2.949s |
| 16 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso/Honda | 1m37.994s | 3.200s |
| 17 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso/Honda | 1m38.166s | 3.372s |
| 18 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren/Renault | 1m38.577s | 3.783s |
| 19 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams/Mercedes | 1m38.635s | 3.841s |
| 20 | Lance Stroll | Williams/Mercedes | 1m38.682s | 3.888s |
