Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Qualifying: Verstappen on pole

For the 22nd and final time this season, the Formula 1 drivers took off for the qualifying session of a Grand Prix. It was under the Abu Dhabi stars that many drivers like Vettel, Ricciardo, and Schumacher hoped to leave the world of Formula 1 with a good Saturday.

Q1

Despite a lot of traffic on his first run, Max Verstappen set the fastest time of the session with a 1’24’754. The Dutchman’s first attempt was 66 milliseconds faster than his garage neighbor, Sergio Perez.

The Red Bulls confirmed their good form from the start of the weekend. The surprise of the early qualifying was the positioning of the Ferraris in the hierarchy. While the red cars seemed to be struggling during Free Practice 3, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were respectively in 3rd and 4th place. However, they were still over 3 tenths behind the Red Bulls ahead of them.

Very disappointing qualifying session for Pierre Gasly. Struggling with his car’s settings since the beginning of the weekend, the Normand couldn’t find any solutions to make it out of Q1. Consequently, Gasly found himself in 17th place while his teammate Yuki Tsunoda secured the 10th position. There’s no doubt that the French driver would have hoped for a better final qualifying session with AlphaTauri.

List of eliminated drivers: Nicholas Latifi (20th), Alexander Albon (19th), Valtteri Bottas (18th), Pierre Gasly (17th), and Kevin Magnussen (16th).

Q2 translates to “Q2” in English. It is commonly used as an abbreviation for the second quarter of a fiscal year.

The first single-seaters to hit the track for this second part of qualifying were the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. After their initial attempts, Russell had a clear advantage over his teammate. He had clocked a lap three tenths faster than the seven-time world champion.

Not surprisingly, it was a Red Bull that set the fastest lap of the session after a few minutes. But what was more surprising was the fact that it was Sergio Perez’s Red Bull at the top of the time sheet. The Mexican driver had made a superb first attempt, putting him four tenths ahead of Max Verstappen. A huge performance gap that was explained moments later by a radio message from Verstappen. Indeed, the Dutch driver was complaining about a lack of grip on his rear end.

Impressive performances from both Ferraris towards the end of the session, benefiting from improved grip on the track to finish Q2 around a tenth of a second behind Sergio Perez’s time.

For their last qualifying session, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo managed to make it through to Q3. However, the four-time German world champion complained about being hindered by a Red Bull, which has happened three times since the beginning of the qualifying sessions.

List of eliminated: Guanyu Zhou (15th), Lance Stroll (14th), Mick Schumacher (13th), Yuki Tsunoda (12th), and Fernando Alonso (11th)

Q3 translates to “Q3” in English. It is commonly used as an abbreviation for the third quarter of a financial year.

Max Verstappen left no one in doubt after his first attempt with a 1’23’988. The Red Bull driver was almost 3 tenths faster than Carlos Sainz’s time.

So it’s Max Verstappen who concludes this season with the last pole position of the season. He will be followed on the grid by Sergio Perez’s Red Bull. The two Ferraris will start from the second row, with Leclerc having the advantage. A bit further back, we find the Mercedes of Hamilton and Russell, respectively 5th and 6th. It is the first time in his career that Lewis Hamilton didn’t secure a pole position at the end of a Formula 1 season.