Haas' Romain Grosjean described his first run during the final phase of qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as one of the best of his Formula 1 career.
The Frenchman was the first driver of the session to open the salvo of times with a 1:36.192, which was ultimately enough to give him seventh on the grid for the final race of the 2018 season.
Grosjean's time was put under pressure by Ferrari-bound Charles Leclerc who battled hard with the Haas driver to be the 'best of the rest' behind the top three teams.
Ultimately, it was Grosjean who came out on top – beating the Monegasque driver to seventh place by just 0.045s.
"It was a good qualifying," said Grosjean. "To be fair, my first run in Q3 was one of the best laps of my career. I crossed the line and knew there was not much more on track.
"It was good. I was happy. It was great to be in Q3 once again, adding to our tally for the year and especially at a track where we were not sure we’d be competitive.
"Tomorrow’s going to be a long race. It’s going to be interesting to see what we can do on the hypersofts, but I’m looking forward to it"
Grosjean and Leclerc are separated by just two points in the Driver's Championship for 13th place with the Frenchman on 35 points against Leclerc's tally of 33.
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