Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Sergio Perez finishes fourth in qualifying

Mexican driver Sergio Perez (Force India) decided to take a risk at the Yas Marina circuit, managed to accelerate towards the end of Q3 and was rewarded with a fourth place starting position in the 2015 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final race of the season.

German driver Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) will start from pole position, his sixth consecutive pole position (seventh of the year) after being the fastest in Saturday's qualifying session. Rosberg covered the 5,554-meter track in the United Arab Emirates in a time of one minute, 40 seconds and 237 milliseconds, 377 milliseconds faster than his teammate Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).

Hamilton arrived in Abu Dhabi as the virtual World Champion, a title he secured three races ago and will start alongside Rosberg on the front row.

Dutch driver Max Verstappen, who finished eleventh, was eliminated in the second round of qualifying (Q2), along with Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) who will start thirteenth.

Both four-time German world champion Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) and two-time Spanish world champion Fernando Alonso (McLaren) were eliminated in the first round of qualifying (Q1) and will start sixteenth and seventeenth, respectively.

Vettel (who will finish third in the championship) did not make the cut due to a miscalculation by his team, who thought his lap time was enough to advance to Q2, while Alonso suffered a puncture on his left rear tire during his final flying lap in his McLaren.