The 2022 constructors’ champions achieved a front row lock out in the season finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Max Verstappen takes pole position from Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
The two-time champion improved on his last lap to run to a one minute, 23.824 seconds effort, pipping Perez by 0.22 seconds. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc is set to lead a Ferrari second row on race day over the Mercedes contenders.
Purportedly, Q1 pacesetter Verstappen’s RB18 suffered a start-up problem to delay his entry into the final session. Perez did query this partner’s initial absence – a faulty steering wheel switch was said to be the cause.
Checo, who was fastest in Q2 responded with a personal best first sector, then ran purple in the middle part of the lap. Although he struggled for traction and slid out of the final corner set a time of one minute, 24.281 seconds.
But Verstappen’s peerless run through the last part of the lap on his first Q3 go moved him to a one minute, 23.988 seconds. That put him 0.328 seconds ahead of Perez as Sainz split the Red Bull duo.
Leclerc notched fourth position ahead of the Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton leading the batting over George Russell.
For the climax, Leclerc ran early and turned up the wick as he improved on his personal best first and second sectors and then flashed purple in the final part of the lap. That guided him to second place but he was still down by 0.14 seconds compared to Verstappen’s pacesetting first lap from the top ten shootout.
Carlos Sainz ran slower in sector one so, despite lowering his time eventually, he was only fourth to tee up the Red Bull duel for the final pole.
Verstappen improved in all three sectors to be the only driver to break into the one minute, 23 seconds, with his 0.824 seconds effort pulling 0.228 seconds over Perez – who was best of all in the middle sector.
Despite Hamilton topping sector one, he was nearly 0.7 seconds down in fifth as Russell chalked sixth over Lando Norris and Esteban Ocon.
Sebastian Vettel had his complaints over the Red Bulls blocking him in the final corner in Q1 and Q2 to cost a tenth, but he nevertheless snared ninth ahead of his last grand prix. Daniel Ricciardo, meanwhile, completed the top ten.
Fernando Alonso was the notable casualty in Q2, with the two-time champion eventually shuffled back to P11 and he duly missed the shootout for pole to Ricciardo by only three hundredths.
The two-time champion left himself at risk when he climbed to only ninth after his last flying attempt.
As Norris and Leclerc left it late to improve while Alonso did not run again with 20 seconds to go, he was shuffled back to head Yuki Tsunoda and departing Haas driver Mick Schumacher in P13.
Lance Stroll came up short for Aston Martin to take only P14 as Zhou Guanyu was P15.
Alonso had already flirted with elimination. He sat P16 when the Q1 flag was waved. But, despite missing his personal best in the first two sectors, he scraped P14 with his next lap.
That became P15 when Tsunoda gained on his final flier, and the Alpine was ultimately spared by 0.052 seconds as shock Brazil polesitter Kevin Magnussen was knocked out in P16.
The Haas driver did at least trump out-going AlphaTauri racer Pierre Gasly, while Valtteri Bottas failed to progress into Q2 for the second time in as many races – the Alfa Romeo only P18 after struggling to heat its tyres for the beginning of the lap owing to a traffic queue.
Alex Albon pipped Nicholas Latifi by 0.03 seconds as the Williams teammates ran slowest of all.
So congratulations to Max Verstappen with pole position in the final race of the 2022 season. It will be fascinating if the leading Red Bull driver will be a team player to help Sergio Perez secure the runner-up position in the drivers’ standing by helping his colleague in the race.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:23.824
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:24.052
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:24.092
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:24.242
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:24.508
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:24.511
7 Lando Norris McLaren 1:24.769
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:24.830
9 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:24.961
10 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:25.096
11 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:25.219
12 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:25.225
13 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:25.045
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:25.359
15 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:25.408
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:25.834
17 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:25.859
18 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:25.892
19 Alexander Albon Williams 1:26.028
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1’26.054
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Max Verstappen charged to pole position for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, getting the better of Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez and Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc as the sun set and the track action ramped up during qualifying at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Verstappen led the way with a time of 1m 23.988s after the first Q3 runs and improved to a 1m 23.824s on his final lap, finishing two-tenths clear of Perez, with Leclerc half a tenth further back in third.
Carlos Sainz followed team mate Leclerc in fourth, while Lewis Hamilton and George Russell put their Mercedes cars P5 and P6 respectively to ensure that the top three teams from 2022 will start the final race of the season in formation.
Lando Norris was one of the stars of qualifying as he grabbed seventh in his McLaren, ahead of Alpine rival Esteban Ocon – the two teams set for a showdown over P4 in the constructors’ standings.
Another man to spark cheers in the grandstands was Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel, as he stormed to ninth during his final F1 qualifying session, while Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) rounded out the top 10, albeit with a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision with Kevin Magnussen in Brazil.
Fernando Alonso could not follow team mate Ocon into Q3 as he fell a few thousandths short during Q2, winding up in P11 and just in front of Yuki Tsunoda, who led AlphaTauri’s charge with a solid session to see out the season.
Mick Schumacher ended his final F1 qualifying run with Haas in 13th, as the wait goes on to find out where he will head next, while Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu joined him as Q2 eliminees.
Q1 and the opening knockout phase saw Magnussen come back down to earth with a bump after his spectacular pole position amid changeable conditions in Brazil – the Dane the first driver to miss the Q2 cut in P16.
He was joined on the sidelines by Pierre Gasly and Valtteri Bottas in the other AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo machines, with Williams drivers Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi – the latter also bidding farewell to the sport – bringing up the rear.
Q1 – Magnussen goes from pole to Q1 exit
There was plenty of intrigue over the front-running order at Yas Marina after Verstappen and Red Bull topped Friday evening’s second practice session, ahead of Russell’s Mercedes and Leclerc’s Ferrari – albeit with the Dutchman using more soft tyres than his rivals.
When the cars rolled out of the pit lane for the start of Q1, amid similar conditions to those experienced in FP2, it was Verstappen who set the early pace with a 1m 24.754s, putting him just over half a tenth clear of team mate Perez and three-tenths up on the Ferrari of Sainz.
With Mercedes pair Russell and Hamilton the best part of a second adrift, split by Norris in his McLaren, Verstappen’s only concern at this point surrounded his headrest, as he radioed the Red Bull pit wall to report that “I think it’s broken” and to request checks.
When drivers re-emerged for the final runs, there were no changes at the sharp end of the timesheets, with Verstappen – who headed back to the pits rather than complete his second attempt – holding on for P1 ahead of Perez, Ferrari pair Sainz and Leclerc, and Norris.
Further back, Vettel was in the drop zone and at risk of dropping out in his last F1 qualifying appearance, but he delivered an inspired final lap to jump up to sixth, edging out the Mercedes cars of Russell and Hamilton, as Zhou and Tsunoda completed the top 10.
Outgoing Haas driver Schumacher made it into Q2 in 11th position, followed by Ocon, Stroll and Ricciardo, while Alonso squeezed through after recovering from a scruffy first attempt, which saw him catch a wild slide at Turn 9.
After the highs of his pole last time out at Interlagos, Magnussen was eliminated in Q1, along with Gasly, Bottas – the Alfa Romeo man swearing on his way back to the pits as he lamented that his tyres “didn’t work” – and Williams pair Albon and Latifi.
Knocked out: Magnussen, Gasly, Bottas, Albon, Latifi
Q2 – Perez on top as Vettel seals a Q3 spot
Red Bull again led the way in the Q2, but this time it was Perez sitting pretty at the top of the timing screens, as he shaved some three-tenths off Verstappen’s pace-setting Q1 effort en route to a 1m 24.419s.
After a low-key start, Ferrari upped their pace as Q2 drew to a close to place second and third with Leclerc and Sainz respectively – the duo separated by just 0.004s, as Verstappen settled for P4, a tenth further back.
Hamilton was left confused by Mercedes’ 0.355s gap to the front of the pack as he took fifth, with Norris once again splitting the Silver Arrows as he pipped Russell to round out the top six positions.
Vettel produced another stunner at the end of Q2 to grab P8 and make it through to the pole position shootout, despite frustrations over traffic, with Ocon and Ricciardo – his grid penalty aside – also progressing.
Alonso was unable to join team mate Ocon in Q3 in the other Alpine, as he narrowly missed out in P11, with Tsunoda, Schumacher, Stroll and Zhou the other drivers to fall at the second hurdle.
Knocked out: Alonso, Tsunoda, Schumacher, Stroll, Zhou
Q3 – Verstappen and Red Bull make their mark
Red Bull were once again quick out the blocks in Q3 as Verstappen pumped in a 1m 23.988s on his first run to lead the way from Sainz, Perez and Leclerc, with Hamilton and Russell watching on in P5 and P6 respectively.
And when the drivers came back out for their final efforts, Verstappen only strengthened his advantage by clocking a 1m 23.824s, as Perez got the jump on the Ferraris to give Red Bull a front-row lock out.
While two-tenths separated Verstappen and Perez, there was just half a tenth between the Mexican in P2 and Leclerc in P3, with Sainz, Hamilton and Russell cut adrift of the pole battle during the decisive laps.
As the top three teams occupied the top six positions, it left Norris and McLaren to grab the ‘best of the rest’ spot in P7, followed by the Alpine of Ocon, the similarly impressive Aston Martin of Vettel and the second McLaren of Ricciardo.
Ricciardo’s three-place grid penalty for Sunday evening’s race means he will drop to 13th for his final start with the Woking team, promoting Alonso, Tsunoda and Schumacher in the process.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen explains Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Formula 1 qualifying “scare”. Motorsport.com provides the full details.
Max Verstappen has revealed the “scare” he faced ahead of grabbing pole position for Formula 1’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when his Red Bull car completely shut down.
The world champion was just preparing to go out for his first run in Q3 when there was some frantic action in the Red Bull garage after his car completely stopped.
That delay meant a plan for Verstappen to help tow teammate Sergio Perez had to be thrown out of the window while the Dutchman reset his car’s systems.
In the end, Verstappen was able to get going and put in a lap that was good enough to secure pole position on his first run, before bettering it later on.
On the second runs, Verstappen got out on schedule and was able to give Perez a slipstream that helped the Mexican secure second on the grid for a Red Bull front-row lockout.
Reflecting on his run to pole position, Verstappen said: “It was a bit of an up and down qualifying.
“It started off quite well. Q2 was a little messy and honestly I don’t know why, but the tyres, I just couldn’t get the grip together. But then in Q3 it all felt a bit more normal.
“[Then] we had a bit of a scare. The car turned off before the first run, so we had to reboot everything. Then we went out and both of the laps were good enough [for pole], so of course very pleased with that.
“But I’m also very happy that both cars are on the front row because we know that, of course, we want to win the race, but we also want to finish second with Checo in the championship. So that’s definitely a great start for tomorrow.”
Perez was delighted at getting up onto the front row, as he praised Verstappen’s assistance which has boosted his chances of securing runner-up in the drivers’ championships this year.
“It is a good start,” said Perez. “I think we didn’t make that final step in Q3, especially Q3 run one wasn’t that good. So we were a bit behind.
“But it’s good. It’s good to lock out that front row for tomorrow. Max did a great job for me. We worked together as a team really strongly on that final run. So yeah, looking forward to tomorrow which is the day that really matters.”
Despite Red Bull dominating qualifying, Verstappen still predicted a close contest on Sunday.
“For sure today was amazing, but I still expect it to be a good battle tomorrow,” he explained. “At least we have both cars there and we can do what we want.”
Red Bull planned for Max Verstappen to tow teammate Sergio Perez twice in Formula 1 qualifying at Abu Dhabi’s 2022 race, but that was scuppered by his early-Q3 car trouble.
A week on from its difficult and controversial Sao Paulo Grand Prix, where Verstappen refused a late second race team order to let Perez by, the team had arranged things so Verstappen would aid Perez in qualifying at the Yas Marina track.
But at the start of Q3, Verstappen was left shaking his head in his pitbox while Perez queried the Dutchman’s problem over his team radio, which was later revealed to be Verstappen’s engine unexpectedly shutting down and his car needing to be rebooted before it finally fired up.
After that, Verstappen went on to claim provisional pole while Perez ran third, before the former then led the latter around for the final Q3 runs and they locked out the front row with Verstappen ahead and going even quicker to seal pole.
When asked by Autosport/Motorsport.com if Verstappen would have given Perez a tow on both Q3 runs, the world champion confirmed that should have been the case but for the trouble aboard his RB18.
“Going into the weekend, we gave Checo the option to choose what he would like – ‘do you want to go first or behind?’,” Verstappen explained in the post-race press conference in Abu Dhabi.
“He chose to go behind and that was also the plan in qualifying.
“But I was planned to go ahead in the first run as well, but everything just turned off. But, luckily we got it together for the second run.”
Verstappen had also led Perez on the sole dry Q3 run in Brazil, with the Mexican driver saying the tow he did finally get on the second Abu Dhabi Q3 laps aided his rise to the front of the grid.
This was despite being close to the other Red Bull car making his progress through the technical final sector slightly harder, even with the reduced ‘dirty air’ effect on the 2022 cars.
“Yeah, it certainly did [help],” Perez said of the tow from Verstappen. “I think we worked really well as a team today.
“And I could feel [the effect] – especially sector two it was working. What you gain you lose a bit in sector three, but generally I think certainly it was a positive thing.”
Perez said the result – Red Bull’s first front-row lockout since Daniel Ricciardo headed Verstappen at the front of the grid at the 2018 Mexican GP – provided a “nice to be back” feeling for the team after its defeats and self-inflicted difficulties in Brazil.
“It was a good session,” said Perez. “It was looking better after Q2 [which Perez topped and Verstappen trailed 0.2s behind].
“Then Q3 didn’t start that well. Run one especially wasn’t ideal. Then, the second run was quite a lot better – not enough for pole, though.
“Still, being on the front row for the team is a good result, especially after the weekend we come in Sao Paulo where we struggled quite a bit. It’s nice to be back.”
Source: Motorsport.com
Mercedes’s Toto Wolff admits that this Abu Dhabi qualifying is “one to put in the toilet”. Motorsport.com has the news story.
Toto Wolff believes Formula 1 qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was “one to put in the toilet” for Mercedes after slumping to the third row of the grid.
Six days on from Mercedes’ 1-2 finish in Brazil led by George Russell, the team failed to put up a fight to Red Bull and Ferrari at the head of the field as it finished six tenths of a second off the pace.
Hamilton took fifth place on the grid, finishing three thousandths of a second ahead of Russell in sixth as the Yas Marina Circuit layout hit the weaknesses of the Mercedes W13 car.
Speaking on Sky Sports F1 after qualifying, Wolff joked: “Today I have just heard is world toilet day, so I think that was one to put in the toilet.”
Wolff explained that Mercedes “didn’t get the job done” up against Ferrari, who locked out the second row of the grid with a buffer of more than two-tenths of a second.
“We went backwards and they did a little step forwards,” he said. “We went for a high downforce, high drag concept to have a good race car for tomorrow, and that was just so slow on the straights. It didn’t give anything.”
The long straights in Abu Dhabi played to the strengths of Red Bull whilst hitting the draggy weakness of the W13, marking a turnaround in fortunes for Mercedes compared to last weekend.
But Wolff said that Abu Dhabi was always expected to be a difficult track for Mercedes given the characteristics of the car, and that its success at Interlagos was never likely to translate into another good result.
We always knew that we need to improve and not set our expectations set on the Brazil result,” said Wolff.
“I think [Interlagos] perfectly suited our car, everything ran very, very smoothly. And in Abu Dhabi, in our table of doom, was one of our worst tracks. Not catastrophic like the high-speed tracks, but still not ideal, and we’ve seen that today.
“We’re just way too draggy for qualifying time, losing six-tenths on the straights, and it’s just not easily solved by reducing the rear wing because it’s simply the aerodynamic efficiency that the car is lacking. If we reduce the rear wing, we’re not fast through the corners.”
Wolff took some comfort in the fact that Mercedes’ simulations for Abu Dhabi were correct, and hoped the team would fare better over the race distance on Sunday.
“In a way, it’s good there is correlation between our simulation and the result, that’s the one positive I see,” said Wolff.
“I hope that we have a strong race car that is gentle to the tyres, even though we maybe can’t overtake.”
Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel felt he “was coming alive” in final Formula 1 qualifying session. Motorsport.com provides the story.
Sebastian Vettel says he was “coming alive” as he took ninth on the grid in his final Formula 1 qualifying session in Abu Dhabi.
Leaving behind the inevitable distractions of his last race weekend before entering retirement, Vettel was sixth fastest in Q1 and showed great commitment as he weaved his way through slow-moving cars at the end of the lap.
He was then eighth in Q2, having he felt he’d lost a little time after following a Red Bull across the line in both sessions.
In Q3 he had a clean lap on his way to ninth on a day when his Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll qualified only 14th.
“I think it was a good session,” said Vettel when asked by Motorsport.com about his charge to Q3.
“I’m happy with how the session went. It was a bit emotional before getting in the car, but once I was in the car it was all thoughts in into qualifying the laps.
“It was coming alive, I was coming alive. So it felt good. Always in the laps before the Q3, it was always a Red Bull in the last corner. If you staged it, you probably wouldn’t be able to.
“But yeah, the last lap was clear.”
Elaborating on an emotional weekend, Vettel admitted that his thoughts before qualifying had been on “the people that can’t be here because they’re not with us anymore, or they didn’t make it”.
“There’s a lot of people that are here, which is very special,” he said.
“But yeah, it’s been a long time [in F1] and it’s a funny feeling, I have to admit. But as soon as you’re in the car and you drive out, you’re quite busy so I guess it’s a good sign.
“And I enjoy it most when I’m present, and I was, I think it was a good session.”
In addition to the obvious personal target of points in his final race, his Aston Martin team needs Vettel to score well in order to beat Alfa Romeo to sixth in the championship.
“Absolutely, we’ll try to do that,” he said. “I mean, we’ll see what happens, but I feel we have the right tyres with us. And yeah, I think it should be a good race.”
Vettel’s friend and long-time rival Fernando Alonso, who will switch from Alpine to replace him at Aston Martin next year, was pleased to see the German make Q3.
“Yeah, I was very happy,” said the Spaniard, who qualified 11th in a special helmet paying tribute to Vettel.
“It’s not that we try to help him, but we will all try to have an eye on him when we see him on the mirror, or when he’s coming on the fast lap or whatever, because we want a smooth weekend for him.
“Even tomorrow I think he starts ninth, I start 10th [after a three-place grid penalty for Daniel Ricciardo carried over from Interlagos], so I will take care of him at the start and the first lap.
“Let’s hope we both see the chequered flag.”