Hamilton broke his wishbone, which caused his spin

Mercedes has confirmed that the spin Lewis Hamilton suffered on his final timed run during qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was caused by a wishbone failure.

Hamilton, who ultimately qualified fourth fastest, lost control of his car on the exit of the Turn 12/13 chicane as he pushed to improve his grid position, with the Briton claiming that something had broken on his car when speaking to the media after the session.

Following post-qualifying checks, Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn said a wishbone issue was uncovered, but has no doubts that both cars will be safe to race tomorrow.

"When we got the car back, we had fractured a wishbone. That's why he lost control of the car," said Brawn. "It's a circuit where there is a lot of grief over the curbs and so on and we're going back through the data to understand what may have provoked it.

"It's a system we have had for a long time with no problem so it may be an issue with that particular part or it may be an issue with the way we are taking some curbs. I don't think there is any high risk for tomorrow and we should be able to fix it in parc ferme."

Nico Rosberg qualified in third position to make it an all-Mercedes second row.