“He’s going to be angry” - Toto Wolff reveals Lewis Hamilton’s approach for Abu Dhabi

With a single race to go and an 8th world championship title on the line, Lewis Hamilton is more motivated than ever to give it his all. He is rather bitter that his title rival, Max Verstappen, will be starting the race ahead of him on Sunday.

Hamilton had three consecutive wins at the last three circuits and a generally strong performance through all of Friday and Q1 and Q2. It made pole positioning for the Briton seem very likely.

However, Red Bull's strategy to give Max Verstappen a tow from team-mate Sergio Perez, allowed the Dutch to fly through the final laps in Q3. Hence, he achieved the first place.

Emphasizing the importance of taking the positives out of the less than ideal outcome of the qualifying session, Toto Wolff told Sky Sports:

"I think he [Lewis Hamilton] is going to be angry, and that's good, motivated for tomorrow to just hand him down. We are on the back foot and sometimes you need to see the positives, sometimes that's not bad as a starting point."

Neither of the two title contenders are likely to back down under any circumstances. With Lewis Hamilton behind his Dutch rival, an aggressive chase to the front is definitely to be expected.

---

"A slight disadvantage" expected for Lewis Hamilton's start from P2

Lewis Hamilton will be starting the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in second place and on medium compounds. Meanwhile Max Verstappen will be taking pole position with soft tyres. This something that Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff believes will give the Dutch a slight advantage for the start.

He added:

"From P2 we much rather start from the medium. We will have a slight disadvantage on the start I guess and the first 6/7 laps."

A near perfect strategy executed by Red Bull in Q3 put both their cars on the front two rows. Meanwhile, an unfortunate session for Valtteri Bottas left him in 6th place.

---