Max Verstappen takes his fourth consecutive pole position at the Yas Marina circuit as he goes fastest in the final qualifying session of the season.
Q1
Williams looked very strong throughout the first qualifying session, with Albon going 4th fastest. Sargeant had also put in a time good enough to comfortably make it through to Q2, though had invalidated each flying lap he attempted, meaning he set no representative time and will start the race from last place. This result means that Sargeant becomes the first driver failing to outqualify their teammate throughout an entire season since Albon against Verstappen in 2021.
A lot of traffic had built up in the pitlane as drivers began to filter out for their final runs in Q1. With no overtaking allowed in the pitlane, this would mean those towards the back would have compromised out laps, and potentially run into some traffic on their flying laps. Whilst the likes of Sergio Perez were able to deal with this well, going 2nd fastest whilst being the last person to set a lap, Carlos Sainz was not quite so lucky, and was only able to go 16th fastest, a surprising elimination in Q1.
ELIMINATED
16. Carlos Sainz – Ferrari +0.138
17. Kevin Magnussen – Haas +0.164
18. Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo +0.188
19. Zhou Guanyu – Alfa Romeo +0.559
20. Logan Sargeant – Williams NO TIME
Q2
Hamilton has the most pole positions at this track, though he looked somewhat off the pace today. Whilst Russell was able to bring his Mercedes into 6th in Q2, Hamilton was only able to go 11th, getting eliminated in Q2 for the second race in a row.
Whilst Williams looked strong in Q1, their performance wasn’t quite as strong in Q2. Albon was 7 tenths slower on his first lap than the time he set in Q1, albeit on used tyres, though he was only able to regain 6 tenths when he moved onto a new set. His time was only good enough to place him in 14th.
ELIMINATED
11. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes +0.081
12. Esteban Ocon – Alpine +0.113
13. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +0.144
14. Alex Albon – Williams +0.161
15. Daniel Ricciardo – Alpha Tauri +0.164
Q3
Only one driver has won the Abu Dhabi grand prix from lower than 2nd on the grid, making this one of the most important qualifying sessions of the season. Max Verstappen set the early benchmark, setting a time of a 1:23.445. Norris was second fastest, behind by over 3 tenths of a second, but was on used tyres compared to Verstappen’s new set.
Norris pushed hard to take his 2nd career pole position, and though he was a tenth down coming into sector 3, he had looked strong at the back end of the lap all evening. However, he went wide and took too much curb at the exit of turn 12, then had a massive slide at turn 13. He lost over 5 tenths in the final sector, opening the door to being outqualified by Leclerc, Piastri and Russell.
Verstappen would fail to improve on his final time, though this would not matter as he would retain his pole position. Leclerc would get the closest, being just over a tenth slower in 2nd place, and with Russell in 4th that could end up being a very important lap for Ferrari’s battle with Mercedes for 2nd in the Constructor’s Championship.
Another big fight in the Constructor’s Championship is the fight for 7th between Williams and Alpha Tauri. Yuki Tsunoda will hope that his qualifying pace can translate well into tomorrow’s race, having put himself into an impressive 6th place.
Qualifying Results
1. Max Verstappen – Red Bull 1:23.445
2. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.139
3. Oscar Piastri– McLaren +0.337
4. George Russell – Mercedes +0.343
5. Lando Norris – McLaren +0.371
6. Yuki Tsunoda – Alpha Tauri +0.523
7. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +0.639
8. Nico Hulkenberg – Haas +0.663
9. Sergio Perez – Red Bull +0.726
10. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +1.103
