Verstappen didn’t allow any surprises in the last qualifying session of the season. Norris shot off the front row with a mistake of his own. What does the starting grid look like for the Abu Dhabi GP?

After the free practice sessions, it seemed that McLaren had the best chance to take pole position. Red Bull had been tweaking the car set-up for a long time and still couldn’t get to the ideal configuration. In the end, however, the Austrian team gave Verstappen a perfectly tuned formula, which he used to win qualifying for the twelfth time this season.

The first part of qualifying

Logan Sargeant had one last chance to beat his teammate in qualifying this year. Meanwhile, the last driver to lose this team mini-meet in all qualifying sessions of the season was Alex Albon, who couldn’t even manage to surpass Verstappen once in 2020.

The young American driver did not enter qualifying well at all, with the first lap being wiped out by the sports commissioners for not meeting the track limits. But Sargeant wasn’t the only one who broke the rules, with Zhou and Hülkenberg also finishing without timed laps after their first attempts.

Sargeant was unable to keep his car between the white lines on his second attempt. He will therefore start Sunday’s race in last place.

Carlos Sainz did not have an ideal start to the battle for fourth place in the championship. He had already cut his practice time short on Friday when he flew out of turn three and ended up in the barriers. He couldn’t even fight his way out of the first qualifying session today, finishing just 16th.

None of the Alfa Romeo drivers could fit into the second part of qualifying. Bottas will start in 18th place, while Zou will be 19th. Magnussen will keep Bottas company on the penultimate row.

The second part of qualifying

The McLaren’s speed was already shown by Lando Norris in the first lap of the second qualifying session, whose time was less than two tenths behind Verstappen, but unlike the Dutchman, he drove his lap on used tyres.

The second qualifying session saw another of the top four drivers in the championship take the fall. Lewis Hamilton missed out on third qualifying by less than a tenth. He then radioed the team to complain that something was wrong with his car.

There was only an eight-hundredths difference between the times of the top five. Behind the 11th-placed Hamilton, Esteban Ocon will start the GP. Row seven will consist of the Stroll-Albon pairing. Ricciardo was slowest in the second qualifying session.

The third part of qualifying

Drivers from eight different teams made it into the elite ten in Abu Dhabi. Only Williams and Alfa Romeo were missing in the third qualifying session.

After the first fast laps, Verstappen stood on provisional pole position. The McLaren drivers were closest to him, with a loss of three and five tenths respectively.

Norris’ second lap fell apart in the final sector. Slipping through Turn 13 cost him a likely second place. The Briton’s best attempt was only good enough for fifth place.

Max Verstappen took his 12th pole position of the season. He will be attacked from the front row by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc at the start of the race.

Third place will belong to Piastri, who with a great performance stepped towards the sweet spot of an amazing first season in Formula 1. From the second row, he’ll certainly be thinking about his third podium of the season.

The Australian will be joined on the second row by Russell. Alongside McLaren Norris on the third row will be Juki Cunoda. AlphaTauri needs seven points to catch Williams in the Constructors’ Cup.

Seventh fastest was Fernando Alonso, just ahead of Nico Hülkenberg. Perez and Gasly’s last times have been erased due to track limits, so they are only fifth in line.

Source: F1, F1TV, Twitter