#AbuDhabiGP Qualifying: @Max33Verstappen pips @ValtteriBottas to pole. #F1

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen beat Mercedes’ duo Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton to pole position by a narrow margin in a thrilling qualifying session at the Abu Dhabi GP.

Bottas edged Hamilton on their final flyers as the seven-time World Champion returned to qualifying action after missing out last weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix due to testing positive for coronavirus.

The top three drivers will start the race on the Pirelli yellow side-walled C4 medium compounds.

After the initial hot-laps were completed, Bottas held provisional pole with a 1:35.415, leading the way by 0.104 seconds ahead of Verstappen, with Hamilton a further 0.135 adrift of his time-sheet topping team-mate after the latter encountered a snap of oversteer upon the exit of the turn five/six chicane early in the middle sector.

But the Briton rapidly found time on his final flyer, looking as if he would jump by Bottas through the first two sectors before losing time as the lap went on.

Hamilton however, moved to provisional pole, but was demoted back to second from team-mate Bottas’ improvement on a 1:35.271 before Verstappen snatched P1 from the Mercedes pairing on his final effort.

The Dutchman posted the quickest time in the second sector before holding onto a personal best in the last sector to take pole position with a 1:35.246, and only 0.025 seconds faster than Bottas with Hamilton a further 0.086 back in third.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was fourth and 0.251 seconds off of Verstappen’s Abu Dhabi pole effort, securing the qualifying head-to-head fight with team-mate Carlos Sainz, who qualified sixth but will also start the Grand Prix on the mediums.

Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon split the McLaren pairing in fifth place, with AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat seventh and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll eighth.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took ninth but will be relegated three places for tomorrow’s season finale Abu Dhabi Grand Prix due to his Sakhir GP penalty for his opening lap tangle with Racing Points Sergio Perez and Red Bull’s Verstappen, but the Monegasque-youngster just got through Q2 on the medium rubber.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly completed the top ten.

Renault F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon was eliminated in the middle segment by a last minute improvement by Red Bull’s Albon and ended up outside the top ten in 11th place, in-front of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo who was 12th in his last outing for the Anglo-French alliance.

Ricciardo did not have a time on the time-sheets ahead of his final Q2 flyer after losing his initial for running too wide at the exit of the final corner, but the Australian went faster in any case on his last lap, it was not enough to get him any higher than 12th.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished his final qualifying session for the Scuderia in 13th place, ending with the four-time World Champion knocked out in Q2 for the 14th time in the 2020 seaosn.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi ended Q2 in 14th, losing his best final effort due to an invalidated lap time for running wide at the final corner.

BWT Racing Point F1 Team’s Sergio Perez qualified 15th, but the Mexican however, will start at the back in tomorrow’s Grand Prix due to grid penalties for power-unit component changes (fourth new Internal Combustion Engine, Turbocharger and Motor Generator Unit-Heat [MGU-H]).

In Q1, Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen was knocked out by team-mate Giovinazzi, who had lost the time for his initial run for going wide at the penultimate corner, improving from last to 15th on his final flyer.

This saw Giovinazzi edge out his Alfa Romeo team-mate 9-8 in qualifying, with Raikkonen failing to post a personal best time on his final hot-lap.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen and Williams Racing’s George Russell were 17th and 18th respectively, with the pairing improving on their final hot-laps but unable to progress through the first qualifying stage, with Russell unhappy due to his tyre pressures.

The other Haas VF-20 entry of Pietro Fittipaldi, was unable to post a personal best effort on his final Q1 flyer, wounding up 19th and ahead of Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi who brought up the rear, with the latter not able to set a hot-lap after spinning at the final corner on his warm-up lap.

Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying – The Top Three

Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16:

“I said before, it’s the final send of the season and we did that. Luckily everything came together in the final lap. The whole year when you are behind, getting closer, it can be very frustrating.”

2nd Place – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+:

“We saw in FP3 that Red Bull were quick, the main issue was we couldn’t get the soft tyres working. We made improvements, but we never got 100% out of the car. The balance was not quite perfect.”

3rd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+:

“It’s been a difficult weekend I’d say, to get back in the rhythm. It felt like I’d lost the momentum, but congratulations to Max. Hopefully we can give them a run for their money tomorrow.”

You can see the full Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2020 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1061/abu-dhabi/qualifying.html

In the earlier FP3 session, Verstappen lead from team-mate Albon in a Red Bull Racing one-two, with Renault pairing Ricciardo and Ocon third and fourth respectively and McLaren’s Norris rounding out the top five. You can read the full Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2020 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1061/abu-dhabi/practice-3.html

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