Hamilton qualified second behind his team-mate Valtteri Bottas as Mercedes locked out the front grid.
Bottas set a track record in Abu Dhabi midway through Q3.
And Hamilton couldn’t trump the Finn on his final qualifying effort of 2017.
Immediately after qualifying, Hamilton said: “What a lap. He just had an incredible qualifying.
“Congratulations to him. We have a great crowd here today. The last qualifying of the year and I gave it everything.
“I seemed to lose a bit of pace going into qualifying, Valtteri did an exceptional job and I’m really happy for him.
“Just overall little bits here and there (was what lost it). I was up a tenth and a half out of Turn 1 and lost it in Turn 5 or 6. It’s been an incredible year of qualifying though.”
Mercedes sent the Ferraris into third and fourth place during F1 qualifying for Sunday’s race.
And Sebastian Vettel admits he has plenty of work to do to catch the two Silver Arrows on Sunday.
“I am getting better,” he said.
“Mercedes always had the edge here in qualifying but I think it was a good session.
“It was a bit of a shame to be that far back to tomorrow, with our race pace, we can be a bit closer. They have been very, very strong.
“Valtteri had a mega lap so congratulations to him. But we will see what happens.
“It should be a fun race. Overtaking is not straightforward but not impossible here, so let’s see.”