Championship contender Lewis Hamilton will start the decisive Abu Dhabi GP in P2, as title rival with the same amount of points Max Verstappen got pole position. After leading FP2 and FP3 with a comfortable gap of two-three tenths on the Dutchman, Hamilton lost out on the top spot by a decent margin.

Unfortunately, his teammate Valtteri Bottas won't be able to aid him at the beginning in his quest to claim the win, as the Finn will start his last race with the German team behind in P6.

Louder, @LewisHamilton! 👏👏 We’ve fought our way into contention, now let’s get that prize. 💪 pic.twitter.com/4ZZrlJ94Vc

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) December 11, 2021

Mercedes's Toto Wolff talked about the qualifying session to Sky, saying that the need to recover points on Verstappen will be enough to motivate the Brit for the final round, while not looking excessively worried about starting behind their rival:

“There is nothing you need to say. I think he will be angry and that’s good, motivated for tomorrow to just hunt him [Verstappen] down. We are on the back foot and sometimes you need to see the positives. Sometimes that’s not bad as a starting point.”

The starting tyre might prove to be an important asset in the title race, as Verstappen is forced to start on softs, less durable than the mediums Hamilton will run, but also faster enough to give the Dutchman an advantage in the first few laps:

"From P2, much rather starting on the medium. We would have a slight disadvantage at the start I guess, and the first six, seven laps if he [Verstappen] drives fast."

The German team will evaluate in the night the possible strategies, including the undercut opportunity to try and give Hamilton the best aid in his title fight:

“If he manages then it’s not a big advantage for them, but we can go longer. We can go for an aggressive undercut also and try to control track position. So overnight we will be running lots of programmes and algorithms to see where that ends," he concluded.

Wolff also talked about the overtaking possibility which could be opened by Verstappen's tyre degradation:

"They have put on the small wing, so they will have lots of straight-line speed, so there is not a real difference there, it’s only with tyre offset, and to create that, obviously you need to have a totally different strategy," he summed up.

The Team Principal added that Red Bull had both the real pace advantage in qualifying and, as shown in the previous sessions, in the longer race simulations, but that his drivers had tyre temperature issues:

"I’m also worried for tomorrow because their long runs were much better on Friday. But our tyres were just not in the window, theirs were. And you could see Q1, Q2 was ours, looked like a pretty easy run and then suddenly you lose all the performance."

"The pace was there [in the long runs]. Obviously in the long runs you don’t know because…the car which is going to be faster tomorrow will win the race, irrespective of who starts on which tyre," Wolff expanded.

“And we just need to build on that and recoup, and then hopefully come out on top tomorrow.”

Points on Sunday, Team. 💪 We've come this far, we won't quit now. Keep believing. 👊 pic.twitter.com/HSB8wWblK9

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) December 11, 2021

The Austrian is also concerned by the possibility of Hamilton losing out on his P2 at start, as Norris and Perez, the drivers behind him, won't be doing him any favours:

“If he can keep it in P2 obviously that’s an advantage. If you lose more positions then it becomes more difficult, but this is a long race and it’s Lewis Hamilton in the car,” Wolff said.

He also talked about Bottas's performance, highlighting the closeness of the times signed by the drivers behind the championship leaders:

“If you see the gaps between P3 and Valtteri P6, I think it was all within a tenth. It’s a shame because having him down there [sic] would have helped. It's unfortunate that you are starting in the middle of that gaggle and you just need to make it through the first lap or two, and then we will see how we can get back," he concluded.