• Max Verstappen on front row ahead of Leclerc and Vettel•
Ferrari team principal calls world champion ‘outstanding’Lewis Hamilton closed out the penultimate act of Formula One’s season with a pole for the Abu Dhabi
Grand Prix that exemplified why the championship is already in his hands. As the sun set at Yas Marina, however, Ferrari found themselves once more in a dismal twilight of their own making, the Scuderia enduring another pointed illustration of why their season has failed to match either Hamilton’s or Mercedes’s.
Yet despite Ferrari’s travails Hamilton did keep the potential of a move to Maranello open. His contract with Mercedes ends in 2020 and this weekend the Ferrari team principal, Mattia Binotto, described Hamilton as outstanding and noted his potential availability in 2021 would only “make Ferrari happy”.