Abu Dhabi (Agencies): Red Bull’s Max Verstappen beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to take his 12th pole in 22 races this year at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Verstappen was 0.139 seconds ahead of Leclerc, while McLaren’s Lando Norris appeared to lose a chance for pole with an error on his final lap. A slide at Turn 13 left Norris down in fifth place behind team-mate Oscar Piastri and Mercedes’ George Russell.
Lewis Hamilton was 11th – out of the top 10 for the second race in a row.
Hamilton said to his race engineer Peter Bonnington over the team radio before returning to the pits: “There’s something wrong with this car, mate.” The seven-time world champion was 0.346secs slower than Russell in the second session.
Marko bets against Verstappen
Although the result looks entirely predictable on paper, within Red Bull there was some doubt as to whether Verstappen could secure pole after a difficult weekend until qualifying.
Leclerc has taken pole position at three of the past four races and Verstappen had appeared to be struggling through the three practice sessions, complaining of his car bottoming and bouncing, and suffering from a lack of front grip on Friday and lack of rear on Saturday.
The extent of his struggles was clear when it was revealed by team principal Christian Horner in a conversation with Verstappen over the team radio that Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko had bet him 500 euros (£435) that Verstappen would not be on the front row.
“Helmut lost a bet?” Verstappen said. “What world are we living in?”
Verstappen said his car was much better in qualifying after some changes and he will start his final race of the most dominant season in history from the front of the grid.
He said: “Very weird. The whole weekend so far has been a bit of a struggle. We definitely improved the car for qualifying and from lap one it seemed a bit more together and we could push more. “Around here, with the tyres, you have little slides and it can cost you a lot of lap time. That was happening to us in practice but in qualifying it was a bit more connected.”
Leclerc was another driver to surprise himself in qualifying, as Ferrari had also had a difficult lead-up to the session. On the first runs in the top 10 shootout, Leclerc used scrubbed tyres, as did all other drivers apart from Verstappen, and was slowest. But on new tyres, the Ferrari improved and Leclerc produced what he said was “a really, really good lap”.
“It was a bit of a surprise because, honestly, considering the weekend we’ve had until now, I did not expect it at all,” he added.
“The last lap, I knew I had to put everything together. [At] the last corner there was a bit too much sliding but I think everybody had that.
“Really happy in second place. Q1 and Q2 I was worried to go through so to be on the front row is great.
“Our car is very peaky. On scrubbed tyres it was a good lap but I was last. On new tyres everything came together.” Piastri had been the slower McLaren driver all weekend but Norris’ error allowed the Australian to sneak ahead for a strong result at the end of an impressive rookie season.
Piastri, who was cleared after being under investigation for impeding Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, said: “Difficult session. It has been close this weekend. A bit of a messy one. “I have been struggling to get it together this weekend. Before qualifying, I had not done a lap without a mistake. I did better in qualifying.”
Struggles for Hamilton and Norris
Norris was furious with himself for his error, which he feels continues a theme of making mistakes at crucial times in qualifying – most notably with track-limits errors in Qatar last month. “Terrible,” he said. “I should be… I don’t care where I should be. I made a mistake and ruined my day. I just hope I can fight back. The car is good. Another Saturday ruined.”
Russell said he had expected to fight at the front after being fastest in final practice. “I thought we could fight for pole and we just didn’t make the jump every other team seemed to make,” Russell said.
“Maybe we got ahead of ourselves after P3 after a very strong session. We were quickest every lap and on paper when the track drops 10C and you take out the fuel, you expect to make a one-second jump but we only made a 0.6secs jump.” But he added fourth was “a great place to start” the race.
Hamilton, meanwhile, said: “Just a very unpredictable car and it’s been the same all year. “I am definitely happy it is nearly over. “More inconsistent than ever before – the moment you hit the brakes, the moment you turn, the moment you hit the apex, it’s massively out of balance and very hard to predict what’s going to happen.”
Team principal Toto Wolff said: “It just didn’t come together. Expectations were higher. I’m fed up with having explanations why.
“We were good in the hot, not in the cold. I am just happy this was the last qualifying of the season and we are going to come with a new car.”
Behind Norris, Yuki Tsunoda was an impressive sixth in the heavily upgraded Alpha Tauri – the team raising eyebrows up and down the pit lane as to the extent of the number of new parts they have been able to bring this season.
Fernando Alonso was seventh for Aston Martin, ahead of the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg, the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez – who qualified fifth initially but had his fastest lap deleted for exceeding track limits – and Gasly.
