Max Verstappen outpaced team-mate Sergio Perez to seize pole place for Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Red Bull locked out the front row in a closely-fought qualifying session.
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The two-time world champion clocked a greatest lap in a single minute and 23.824 seconds to complete two-tenths away from the Mexican, delighting Red Bull after every week of reported rifts between the 2 drivers.
Charles Leclerc was third forward of Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz and the 2 Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who claimed his maiden victory final weekend in Brazil.
Max Verstappen’s third pole for Red Bull in Abu Dhabi
Verstappen’s success introduced him his third consecutive pole on the Yas Marina Circuit, his seventh of the season and twentieth of his profession forward of a race by which he bids for a record-extending fifteenth win in a single season.
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“Great job everybody, good team effort,” stated Verstappen on his decelerate lap.
“Well done everybody,” added Perez, the 2 providing low-key enthusiasm after a stormy week since their ‘team orders’ row.
Lando Norris was seventh for McLaren forward of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and retirement-bound four-time champion Sebastian Vettel of Aston Martin. Daniel Ricciardo was tenth on his final drive for McLaren.
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Under the dazzling floodlights, Vettel’s father Norbert was conspicuous in his inexperienced Aston Martin shirt as he cheered his son from the storage for his last qualifying session.
A full 5 minutes handed earlier than the ‘big guns’ emerged, Mercedes delaying their entry to use a cooling monitor on a really heat night with an air temperature of 30 levels Celsius and the monitor at 34.
Much as anticipated, following their pace in last follow, the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Perez set the tempo forward of the Ferraris on their first runs earlier than a frantic last flurry in Q1.
That left Kevin Magnussen as the quickest of the remainder, eradicated in fifteenth place only a week after claiming his and Haas’s maiden pole within the rain at Interlagos.
Out with him went Pierre Gasly in his final weekend with Alpha Tauri earlier than becoming a member of Alpine, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and the Williams pair of Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi.
The Q2 part started with Perez outpacing Verstappen by four-tenths.
Hamilton had briefly appeared endangered, however responded to go second, splitting the Red Bulls, with Russell taking fourth. “Three-tenths?” he repeated when instructed of his hole behind the motivated Mexican.
Vettel, irritated by slower rivals together with Ferrari, drove aggressively to rise to ninth after which fifth, an emotion-fuelled effort.
Fellow former champion Alonso didn’t make the lower for Alpine. Out with him went Yuki Tsunoda of Alpha Tauri, Haas’s Mick Schumacher, Lance Stroll within the second Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.
On the primary runs in Q3, Sainz set the tempo earlier than Verstappen delivered a rasping lap in 1:23.988 to drag three-tenths away from the Ferrari, stamping his authority on proceedings earlier than the ultimate runs.
By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse
