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Lando Norris took pole position at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri as McLaren put themselves in a perfect position to clinch their first constructors' title since 1998.
Norris headed Piastri by 0.209 seconds at the end of a gripping, topsy-turvy qualifying session at the final race of the season.
Carlos Sainz took third place for Ferrari, who trail McLaren by 21 points heading into Sunday's race with a maximum of 44 available.
His team-mate Charles Leclerc will start at the back, qualifying 13th after having his fastest lap time in second qualifying deleted for exceeding track limits, and with a 10-place grid penalty to come.
Lewis Hamilton qualified 18th in his final race for Mercedes after his decisive lap in the first session was wrecked when his car collected a bollard dislodged by Kevin Magnussen's Haas as the Dane tried to get out of Hamilton's way.
Hamilton is set to start 16th after penalties for Leclerc and Williams' Alex Albon.
World champion Max Verstappen starts fifth, immediately in front of Mercedes' George Russell in seventh after their row this week.
McLaren had dominated the practice sessions leading up to qualifying and were favourites for pole, but they did not show their hand until the final lap of a session marked by track limits transgressions and other incidents.
Verstappen was quickest on the first runs in the final session in his Red Bull, despite a big slide out of the final corner which he just managed to rescue from turning into a crash into the pit wall on the inside.
The McLarens were on used tyres for the first runs in the top 10 shootout and Norris was just 0.004secs behind Verstappen, who was on new tyres, with Piastri a further 0.036secs behind.
Verstappen did not improve on his final lap and he dropped down to fifth behind Norris, Piastri, Sainz and the impressive Haas of Nico Hulkenberg. The Dutchman ended up 0.350secs off the pace.
He said: "You never really had a good compare because many people kept aborting on their new tyres and when I went P1 other people were on scrubbed (tyres) so it didn't give a fair performance assessment.
"If I didn't drop it on the last corner I think I could have fought for second."
Alpine's Pierre Gasly took sixth, ahead of Russell, Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, Sauber's Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull's Sergio Perez.
Leclerc went fastest with a lap at the end of the second session, but he had it deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn One.
He will start 19th after his penalty, one place ahead of Williams' Franco Colapinto, who qualified 19th but like Albon has a five-place penalty for excessive gearbox usage.
Leclerc said he still had hopes of a miracle in the constructors' championship.
"The joy will be even bigger if we pull it off after such a tough weekend," he told BBC Sport. "I hope we can turn this around in the best possible way.
"I am very disappointed with my performance today and I am very disappointed with what happened on the engine yesterday but that makes me more determined to do something special tomorrow. So I will give it my all."
Hamilton came into the weekend hoping to end his 12-year Mercedes career on a high and he had a positive two days, emerging as the consistently quicker Silver Arrows driver.
But his first lap in the first session was not quick enough to progress and he needed a second attempt.
He was on target to make it through into the second session until he came across Magnussen in the area around the marina.
Magnussen moved off the track inside the kerb at Turn 13 in an attempt to ensure he did not impede the Mercedes but hit a bollard on the kerb and knocked it on to the track.
Hamilton collected it and it lodged in the front of his floor for the remaining four corners of the lap, and the seven-time champion missed progressing by 0.093secs.
He told BBC Sport: "We gave it everything, I gave it everything, the car was in a good place. Every practice session went well, I was ahead of my team-mate all weekend but when we got to qualifying I think as a team we didn't perform in terms of the timing.
"I was the last car on track and ran out of time ultimately, and then I got the bollard at the end which went under the car and I lost all downforce so it couldn't have gone worse really."
