Formula 1
MAX ON POLE FOR THE FINAL RACE OF THE 2023 SEASON. LECLERC SECURES THE FRONT ROW AND MCLAREN’S PIASTRI BEATS LANDO NORRIS FOR THIRD.
• Mercedes and Ferrari face setbacks. In an early surprise, Carlos Sainz was knocked out of Q1 after Sergio Pérez set a late flying lap that launched the Red Bull out of the bottom five to No. 2. It’s a critical blow to Ferrari, who trails Mercedes by four points for P2 in the constructors’ fight. But then George Russell knocked out Lewis Hamilton in Q2.
• Another constructor fight is brewing with just seven points separating Williams and AlphaTauri for P7. Logan Sargeant failed to reach Q2, and Alex Albon brought home P14. AlphaTauri, meanwhile, has the upper hand with Yuki Tsunoda qualifying sixth.
• Lando Norris may have nailed a cool-looking drift, but it ultimately cost him on his last flying lap.
ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – NOVEMBER 25: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 on track during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi at Yas Marina Circuit on November 25, 2023 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool.
The Dutch driver is looking to close out the season with a third successive victory at Yas Marina Circuit, having won in 2021 and 2022, while teammate Sergio Pérez will hope he can battle through the pack after qualifying in ninth place.
Verstappen said: “I have no clue how good we are going to be in the race, we are usually quite decent. It’s been a very special season and we’ve been enjoying it a lot. I’m very proud of what we have achieved so far this year.”
Elsewhere, Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda showed genuine pace and will start tomorrow’s race from sixth on the grid, while teammate Daniel Ricciardo failed to make it out of Q2 and qualified in 16th place.
Fernando P7: I’m pretty happy with seventh. We were not competitive earlier today in FP3 – 14th and 15th – so I had doubts about our overall pace this weekend. Then, in Q1, we were stronger than expected: I built up confidence through every session, so P7 is a nice result.
It’s an art to adjust to the rapid track evolution here and changing from scrubbed soft tyres to a fresh set means there’s a lot of mixed feedback from the car. It made qualifying tricky. I think tyre degradation is going to make it a race of survival tomorrow night – let’s hope for some chaos.”