ABU DHABI -- Lewis Hamilton suspects his failure to sign off the 2017 season with another pole position was down to tweaks made to his car during qualifying in Abu Dhabi.
Hamilton had been the quicker Mercedes in the three practice sessions leading into qualifying, but eventually fell 0.172s short of teammate Valtteri Bottas' benchmark time in Q3. Hamilton believes modifications he and the team made to his car after final practice, where he was comfortably quickest, hindered his chance of a 12th pole of the season.
"Valtteri did an exceptional job today and we deserved to have pole," he said of Mercedes' comfortable front-row lock-out.