#AbuDhabiGP Qualifying: @Max33Verstappen beats title-rival @LewisHamilton to pole. #1
Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B, Qualifying, Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021, Yas Marina Circuit, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Image credit to Bryn Lennon/Getty Images. Verstappen Abu Dhabi GP pole, 2021 Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying, Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying.
Verstappen Abu Dhabi GP pole – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen beat championship-rival Lewis Hamilton to pole position in the final qualifying session of the season at the Abu Dhabi GP to set up a front-row showdown for tomorrow’s finale as McLaren’s Lando Norris completed the top three.
The two title-contenders will start the Grand Prix on alternate strategies after Verstappen used the softs to progress through Q2, whereas Hamilton got into the final qualifying stage on the more durable C4 yellow-marked mediums, and they will start in-front of McLaren’s Norris with their respective team-mates starting in fourth and sixth.
In the third segment, Red Bull sent out Sergio Perez out ahead of team-mate Verstappen and ordered the Mexican to to push to create a gap whilst Verstappen prepared his tyres, with Perez moving out of the way of his team-mate on the rundown to the new sweeping long-left turn nine at the end of the Yas Marina Circuit’s second straight.
The tactic setup Verstappen brilliantly, who posted a 1:22.109, which put him 0.551 seconds clear of Hamilton after the Mercedes driver completed his initial stint, which the Briton suffered a lock-up at the new turn five hairpin at the start of sector two.
Mercedes opted to lead the pack for the final flyers, where Hamilton improved, but gained more time to Verstappen’s existing provisional benchmark as his hot-lap unfolded, and ended up 0.371 seconds off the Dutchman.
Red Bull did not repeat the slipstream tactic on the second flying laps, with Perez remaining in-front of Verstappen all the way around as he set his personal best effort that still left him behind Norris’s time a 1:22.291.
Verstappen wound up slower than his initial effort, but it did not matter.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz qualified in fifth place, in-front of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who ran behind Hamilton in both runs for the Silver Arrows in the final qualifying stage, as the Brackley-based outfit did not opt for the slipstream.
The other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was seventh and ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, who had his initial flyer invalidated for exceeding track limits upon the exit of the final corner, where the FIA are heavily observing.
Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon qualified ninth and in-front of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who rounded out the top ten, with both drivers currently under investigation for possibly impeding incidents involving Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, with Ocon’s happening in the first segment.
In the second qualifying stage, there were dramatic scenes ahead of the final hot-laps, where Verstappen switched to the softs after suffering a lock-up on the mediums he had been running in the early initial flying tours and flat-spotting his front-left tyre, the Red Bull driver used the red side-walled rubber to go fastest at that phase.
The pack were sent out congestedly and things got crowded in the final corners, which stopped Vettel on track just past turn 14 where Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen crashed heavily in FP2.
Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso starts 11th and in-front of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who was 12th with both the former and latter currently having incidents from the stewards.
Alonso came across a slow-moving McLaren of Ricciardo going through the last corner – Gasly’s was the Frenchman running alongside Vettel, which saw both getting in each other’s way on the main straight during the midway part of the second qualifying stage.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Vettel qualified in 13th and 15th respectively with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi splitting the pairing in 14th.
In Q1, Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi out-qualified his team-mate George Russell as both ended the session 16th and 17th respectively.
Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen will start his final Grand Prix of his career in 18th place whilst Haas F1 Team Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin brought up the rear.
The session was briefly red-flagged when Schumacher knocked a bollard on the inside of the final corner onto the main-straight, then afterwards was hit by the McLaren of Norris, which ran over it and sent the bollard onto the exit of the final corner and was cleared as a result of the stoppage.
You can see the full Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1107/abu-dhabi/qualifying.html
2021 Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying – The Top Three
2021 Abu Dhabi GP Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B, 1:22.109:
“It’s an amazing feeling. We definitely improved the car in qualifying, we got what we wanted. I’m just looking forward to tomorrow, that’s the most important. I felt good on both tyres, so we’ll see.”
2nd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance, +0.371:
“Max did a great lap today, we just couldn’t compete with that time at the end there. We couldn’t answer to that lap, but we’re in a good position with our tyres tomorrow. The last lap was nice and clean, I just couldn’t go any quicker.”
3rd Place – Lando Norris, #4, McLaren Racing-Mercedes, MCL35M, +0.822:
“I dunno really! I went for pole, didn’t quite work out, still a little bit off. I’m a bit nervous, I kind of want to stay where I am and just watch, I don’t want to get too involved and cause any controversy…”
In the earlier FP3 session it Hamilton topping the time-sheets ahead of title-rival Verstappen with Mercedes team-mate Bottas in third, Perez was fourth in the second Red Bull and McLaren’s Lando Norris completing the top five. You can see the full Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1107/abu-dhabi/practice-3.html
#AbuDhabiGP FP2: @LewisHamilton tops time-sheets ahead of @OconEsteban. #F1
#AbuDhabiGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen quickest ahead of @ValtteriBottas. #F1
