Red Bull’s Max Verstappen beat his McLaren title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to pole position with an imposing performance in qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Both Verstappen’s laps in the final session were good enough for pole. He was 0.201 seconds ahead of Norris, who edged Piastri by 0.029secs.
Norris heads Verstappen by 12 points going into the final race of the season, with Piastri a further four adrift of the Briton.
Norris will be champion if he finishes on the podium regardless of anyone else’s result.
Verstappen would win a fifth consecutive title if he wins the race with Norris in fourth or lower.
Mercedes’ George Russell will start fourth with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc fifth and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso sixth.
It was another miserable day for Lewis Hamilton, who crashed his Ferrari in final practice and was knocked out in the first part of qualifying. He will start 16th.
Sunday’s grand prix at Yas Marina starts at 13:00 GMT.
Verstappen’s qualifying session was a virtuoso performance from the Dutchman.
Red Bull used team-mate Yuki Tsunoda to give him a slipstream down the second back straight on his first lap, and the result was the fastest lap of the weekend by more than 0.4secs.
There was no tow on Verstappen’s second lap, but he nevertheless improved further, snipping 0.088secs off his own time.
“Incredibly happy to be in first,” Verstappen said. “That’s the only thing we can do – try to maximise everything with the car. And we certainly did that in qualifying.”
Referring to his first world championship in 2021, which he won in Abu Dhabi, he added: “It felt pretty good and there was a lot of pressure. It felt pretty similar to ’21. I had a pretty good lap then. But when the pressure to perform is on I enjoy that.”
Norris was only third fastest on the first runs in qualifying, 0.456secs off Verstappen and slowest of the title contenders, but he narrowed the gap by more than half on his second lap.
“Max did a good job so congrats to him,” Norris said. “We did everything we could. I think my lap was pretty good. I was pretty happy.
“Disappointed not to be on pole for the final weekend but we just weren’t fast enough today. We’ll have to do it tomorrow. I still want to win tomorrow and that’s going to be the goal.”
Piastri said: “The last lap was pretty good, there wasn’t a whole lot left in that, not quite quick enough today but it sets up a pretty exciting day tomorrow.”
Russell looked at times as if he might become an interloper in the title fight – and he may yet be if he gets a good start – but after a messy session with a few mistakes on his laps, the Briton ended up 0.438secs off the pace in fourth.
Leclerc dragged the Ferrari into fifth after another difficult session for the team.
His lap in second qualifying was lurid, and he said over the radio that he was “surprised” to make it through because he was “driving like rallying”.
Team-mate Hamilton suffered his third consecutive knockout in the first session and said he had “no answer” as to his lack of performance. He was 0.231secs behind Leclerc in the first session.
He had earlier crashed in final practice after losing the car into Turn Nine. “The car was feeling great, just had some bottoming and lost the back end,” he said.
Alonso ended Aston Martin’s season on a relative high with sixth place on the grid – and in so doing became the only driver on the grid to complete a grand prix qualifying clean sweep over his team-mate.
Alonso is 24-0 over Lance Stroll, and the Canadian has beaten him only once over one lap all season, in sprint qualifying in China at the second race of the season.
Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, Haas’ Esteban Ocon, Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Tsunoda completed the top 10, with British Haas driver Oliver Bearman in 11th.
By BBC News
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