@Max33Verstappen takes 12th pole of season in qualifying at the #AbuDhabiGP. #F1

Verstappen Abu Dhabi GP Pole – Newly-crowned three-time world champion Max Verstappen claimed pole position for Red Bull in the final qualifying session of the season at the Abu Dhabi GP ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who completed the top three.

This was Verstappen’s 32^nd-career pole position and ties him with 1992 Formula One World Champion Nigel Mansell for seventh on the all-time pole-sitters list.

In Q3, the initial hot-laps saw a personal best in sector one and two purples in the final two sectors from Verstappen put him on provisional pole, setting a 1:23.445 and was 0.371 seconds quicker than Norris as Piastri was a further 0.504 with the latter scoring a purple sector one.

In the final flying laps, Verstappen failed to improve on his last tour, but his opening effort allowed the world champion to hold onto pole by 0.139 seconds over Leclerc who posted two personal bests and a blistering final sector as Piastri was a further 0.337 seconds off the Dutchman in third.

George Russell’s late improvement saw the Briton split the McLaren’s to take fourth place as Norris completed the top five with the latter scoring the session’s best sector one time, a personal best in the middle sector and then suffered a slide in the final complex of corners, wounding up 0.371 seconds off Verstappen’s pole time.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda scored an impressive sixth and ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who took seventh and Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg who placed eighth.

The other Red Bull RB19 entry of Sergio Perez saw his final flyer deleted as the Mexican ended qualifying in ninth as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten runners.

In the second qualifying stage, which was topped by Verstappen, A late improvement from Russell saw him eliminate his Mercedes team-mate Sir Lewis Hamilton with the Briton missing out on a Q3 appearance by a slim 0.081 seconds.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon ended Q2 in 12^th and ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who was 13^th as Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon and AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo were the slowest of the second qualifying stage runners in 14^th and 15^th respectively.

In the opening segment, which was topped by Verstappen, following a late improvement by Perez, Sainz was the shock eliminatee of the session, missing out on Q2 by 0.138 seconds, and will start the Abu Dhabi GP 16^th.

Sainz on his elimination explained: “It was a very bad situation we found ourselves in leaving the pits as the very last car. All the traffic in the first and second sector, and I don’t think the guys got out of the way very nicely. The whole weekend has been tricky because it’s not like the pace was stellar. We now need to focus on understand what we need to do tomorrow to score some points.”

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen wound up 17^th and in-front of Alfa Romeo duo Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu who were 18^th and 19^th respectively as Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant brought up the rear with the latter having both of his lap times invalidated due to exceeding track limits at the exit of turn one.

Race control noted an impeding incident between Gasly and Piastri.

You can see the full Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2023 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1226/abu-dhabi/qualifying.html

2023 Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying – The Top Three

2023 Abu Dhabi GP Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB19, 1:23.445:

“Very weird, the whole weekend has been a bit of a struggle. We improved the car for qualifying, and I was very happy to be on pole. I have no clue how good we will be in the race, normally we are quite decent. It’s been a very special season.”

2^nd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-23, +0.139s:

“Considering the weekend, we’ve had until now; I did not expect it at all. The last lap, I had to put everything together. In Q1 and Q2 I was worried about going through, and in the end a front row which is amazing.”

3^rd Place – Oscar Piastri, #81, McLaren Formula 1 Team, Mercedes, MCL60, +0.337s:

“Difficult session, extremely tight this weekend. A bit of a messy one, lots of mistakes. My final lap had a small mistake, but it was a big ask to make the front row. I went into qualifying having not done a clean lap all weekend. Q1 messy, Q2 got it together finally, Q3 – happy with that, close by not quite close enough.”

In the final FP3 session of the year, it was Russell topping the time-sheets for the Silver Arrows and in-front of McLaren pairing Norris and Piastri who were second and third respectively as Williams’ Albon and Ferrari’s Leclerc rounded out the top five. You can see the full Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1226/abu-dhabi/practice-3.html

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