Nico Rosberg beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but admitted it was only a “small step” in his desperate battle to stop his arch-rival teammate taking the Formula One drivers’ title on Sunday.
Rosberg produced a lap 0.386 seconds faster than Hamilton to extend Mercedes’ record breaking domination of the season going into the double points finale.
The 29-year-old German produced his best lap of the weekend when he most needed it, clocking 1min 40.480sec to finish ahead of Hamilton with Valtteri Bottas third for Williams.
“It’s only one step, a very small step,” said Rosberg after claiming his 11th pole of the season and 14th of his career.
“This weekend is about the championship, not about pole position. It would have been great if there was a Williams in between us, but that can always happen tomorrow!”
But Rosberg knows he will need a lot of luck to stop Hamilton taking his second world title on Sunday.
The Briton leads the title race by 17 points and Rosberg can only overtake by winning the race, or come second, and hope that Hamilton suffers a setback or fails to score in a race where double points are being awarded for the first time.
Whatever the result, Mercedes are already celebrating. The team have a record-equalling 18th pole of the year and their 12th front row lockout and eighth in succession.
The German firm are also the first engine supplier to take every pole position in a season since Ford in 1969.
The most intense drama came at the end of the final run when Hamilton, who had clocked a best time of 1:40.920 in the second session made minor errors as he clocked a final lap of 1:40.866. It was not enough to overhaul Rosberg.
“I generally didn’t have the best of laps but I enjoyed the qualifying session,” said a calm Hamilton. “Tomorrow is going to be a special day.”
Asked about how he will approach the first corner of the race, Hamilton said: “Same as every time.”
Brazilian Felipe Massa was fourth fastest in the second Williams, ahead of Australian Daniel Ricciardo and his outgoing Red Bull team-mate four-time champion German Sebastian Vettel.
Russian Daniil Kvyat was seventh for Toro Rosso ahead of Briton Jenson Button, who may be in his last race for McLaren, Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari and Spaniard Fernando Alonso in his last race for Ferrari.