Lewis Hamilton believes set-up changes made prior to qualifying hindered his one-lap prospects at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, having finished second to Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
Hamilton led the way during Friday practice and remained on top in the final session on Saturday afternoon, though battled against Bottas in each session beneath the lights at Yas Marina.
Hamilton inched ahead of Bottas in Q2, having been beaten in Q1, but fell behind once more in Q3, and ultimately finished almost two-tenths behind the Finn.
Hamilton pointed to set-up changes he made between sessions, though was pleased to have been able to “experiment”, even having missed out on pole position in the process.
“Congratulations to Valtteri, he did a fantastic job in qualifying,” said Hamilton.
“It's good to see him performing at this level, particularly at the end of the season which puts him into a great position for next year.
“For me, practice was great. Then I made some changes in anticipation of the track cooling which I think were not the right ones in hindsight.
“But it was good to experiment a little which I hadn't really done all year long.
“However, that's why I struggled a little bit with the balance in qualifying. I think in the end I was up about a tenth and a half out of Turn 1, but then I lost it somewhere else through the rest of the lap.
“Nonetheless, it was fun to be out there, challenging in the last qualifying of the year. Now we can get on with the race tomorrow.
“It's a very hard track to overtake, but I will give it everything for sure.”
Hamilton has previously taken victories at Yas Marina in 2011, 2014 and 2016.
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