Max Verstappen secured F1 Abu Dhabi GP pole ahead of Charles Leclerc, with Oscar Piastri ending up third but he is under investigation.
Q1:
It was not straight up start to final F1 qualifying in Abu Dhabi GP as they left it late to start their session. There were lap time deletions early on for Williams’ Logan Sargeant, Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.
The lap deletions continued on and caught out Sargeant again as he had no lap to show. At the front, it was Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen (1m24.160s) and Sergio Perez as a late improvement from the Mexican knocked out Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda showed pace to be third, as Sainz was 16th where he missed Q2 by 0.136s after his 1m24.738s lap. Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m24.764s) was 17th from Alfa Romeo pair of Valtteri Bottas (1m24.788s) and Zhou Guanyu (1m25.159s).
Q2:
The second part in F1 qualifying in Abu Dhabi GP started with Verstappen on song with a 1m23.740s lap as Hulkenberg was once again pinged for track limits and his first lap was deleted. Williams, meanwhile, maintained their early going strategy in Q2 as well.
Alexander Albon was sent out early to set an early lap time when the track was clear. But it was not enough for the Thai after improvements for others around him. Verstappen retained top spot from McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was the big fish to be knocked out in 11th after his teammate George Russell improved on his final run. The Brit missed out on Q3 by 0.081s margin to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
Hamilton was followed by Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (1m24.391s) with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll (1m24.422s) in 13th from Albon (1m24.439s) and AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m24.442s) – everyone lapping very close to each other.
Q3:
The final part in F1 Abu Dhabi GP qualifying saw Verstappen lead the way with a 1m23.445 lap ahead of the McLaren pair of Norris and Piastri in the Top 3, with Mercedes’ George Russell in fourth from Perez, who had a slight snap at Turn 1 to lose some time.
The final run saw no improvement from Verstappen but it was enough to secure F1 pole in Abu Dhabi GP as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc jumped up from ninth to second after getting a quick lap on a brand new tyre, with Piastri (1m23.782s) ending up third.
Russell (1m23.788s) was fourth from Norris (1m23.816s) where the latter had a wild moment in the final sector to lose time on his quick lap. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m23.968s) was sixth in a solid show ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso (1m24.084s)
Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg (1m24.108s) was eighth with Perez (1m24.171s) only ninth after his lap time was deleted due to track limits as did Alpine’s Pierre Gasly (1m24.548s) in 10th. The Frenchman and the Australian are under investigation for impeding.
UPDATE: The FIA cleared Piastri of impeding Gasly in Q3 after the Frenchman noted that he wasn’t too affected by the Australian’s presence. It was only minor which is why the stewards chose not to penalise the McLaren driver, who was also cleared for the safety car line maximum delta time from Q1.