Red Bull’s Max Verstappen outpaced his two McLaren title rivals to secure pole position for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, bolstering his quest for a fifth successive title.
Championship leader
Lando Norris, 12 points ahead of Verstappen and poised to win the title if he finishes on the podium, will start alongside him on the front row, with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in third.
George Russell, fastest in third practice earlier with his Mercedes, set the early qualifying pace and will start fourth, followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fifth.
“We found a bit more lap time and I’m just incredibly happy to be in first,” said Verstappen.
“That’s the only thing we can do, we can control, to maximise what we have and what we can with the car and we definitely did that in qualifying.”
Grid position is crucial at Abu Dhabi, where each of the last 12 races has been won by cars starting on the front row, including 10 by the pole-sitter.
“We did everything we could. I think my lap was pretty good, I was pretty happy,” said Norris.
“Of course, (I’m) disappointed not to be on pole for the final weekend but we just weren’t fast enough today. We’ll have to try and do it tomorrow.”
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This marks Verstappen’s 48th pole position. To clinch the title on Sunday, he needs to outscore Norris by 13 points, win the race, and hope the Englishman finishes off the podium. He must also ensure that Piastri doesn’t outscore him by five points or more.
“I will try and win the race but also in the back of my mind we want to try and score a lot of points and try and win the championship,” said Verstappen.
“We need a little bit of luck from what is happening behind us.”
Yuki Tsunoda, in his last race as a Red Bull driver, provided Verstappen a tow into his quick lap in Q3, enabling Verstappen to top the leaderboard with a time of 1 minute 22.207 seconds.
The McLarens battled for the other front-row spot, with Norris finishing 0.201 seconds behind Verstappen and just 0.029 seconds ahead of Piastri.
For the third consecutive race, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who crashed in third practice, failed to bring his Ferrari out of Q1. This setback adds to a challenging season for the Briton, who holds the best record at Yas Marina Circuit with five pole positions and five wins. He might find some solace in last season’s memory when he finished fourth after starting 16th on the grid.
(With inputs from Agencies)
