Verstappen Storms to Abu Dhabi Pole Position as Red Bull Lock out Front Row

Max Verstappen found the time when he needed to secure pole position for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday evening under the floodlights at the Yas Marina Circuit.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver is looking for a record-extending fifteenth victory of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season on Sunday, and he will be joined on the front row by team-mate Sergio Pérez, the Mexican looking to secure second place in the standings.

Both Scuderia Ferrari and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team did as much as they could during the hour-long Qualifying session but could only find themselves locking out rows two and three respectively.

Q1 – Brazil Polesitter Magnussen Eliminated

What a difference a week makes for Kevin Magnussen, with the Danish driver finding himself on the wrong side of the cut-off point to advance out of Q1 in Abu Dhabi, the Haas F1 Team driver having taken his maiden pole position in São Paulo last weekend.

A late flying lap from his team-mate Mick Schumacher relegated him into the bottom five, while Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly also struggled, the Frenchman finishing seventeenth in his final outing for the team before he moves to the BWT Alpine F1 Team in 2023.

Valtteri Bottas was unable to get the tyre temperature needed on his out lap ahead of his final attempt to get through, with the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN driver losing time in the first sector as a result of finding traffic when he least needed it.

At the bottom of the pack were the two Williams Racing drivers, Alexander Albon qualifying ahead of Nicholas Latifi, the Canadian ending his final race in Formula 1 at the back of the field.

Verstappen ended the opening session with the fastest time ahead of team-mate Pérez.

Q2 – Alonso Shuffled Out at the Death

For much of the weekend so far, it looked as though Alpine had good pace to get through to Q3 with both cars, but when it truly mattered, Fernando Alonso, on his last outing with the team before his move to the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team in 2023, was eliminated in eleventh by just 0.028 seconds.

Lando Norris was the one to push him out just as the session concluded, the British racer jumping up to sixth at the expense of the veteran Spaniard.

Also on the wrong side of the cut off mark was AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in twelfth, the Japanese racer losing time due to a lock up at turn six, while Schumacher’s final Qualifying session for Haas ended with him down in thirteenth.

Lance Stroll was only fourteenth for Aston Martin, while Zhou Guanyu was the slowest of the fifteen drivers in Q2 for Alfa Romeo.

Pérez was quickest in the second segment of the Qualifying hour, the Mexican edging out Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by just under a tenth of a second.

Q3 – Verstappen Storms to Pole Position

The first runs in Q3 saw Verstappen hit the front with a stunning lap of 1:23.988, the first driver all weekend to get under the eighty-four second mark, while Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. went second ahead of Pérez, the Mexican being late out of the pits for his first run due to a small issue.

However, Verstappen left his best to last to lower the benchmark even lower, his 1:23.824, while Pérez moved up to join his Red Bull team-mate on the front row, albeit more than two-tenths of a second back of the World Champion.

Ferrari gave it their all to lock out the second row, Leclerc ahead of Sainz, while Mercedes will line-up on row three, Lewis Hamilton ahead of last weekend’s race winner George Russell.

Norris was best of the rest for the McLaren F1 Team in seventh ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, while Sebastian Vettel, on his final Qualifying session before he retires, will start ninth on the grid ahead of another driver dropping off the grid next season, Daniel Ricciardo.

Yas Marina Circuit Qualifying Result

POS	NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:24.754	1:24.622	1:23.824
2	11	Sergio Pérez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:24.820	1:24.419	1:24.052
3	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:25.211	1:24.517	1:24.092
4	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:25.090	1:24.521	1:24.242
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:25.594	1:24.774	1:24.508
6	63	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:25.545	1:24.940	1:24.511
7	4	Lando Norris	ITA	McLaren F1 Team	1:25.387	1:24.903	1:24.769
8	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:25.735	1:25.007	1:24.830
9	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:25.523	1:24.974	1:24.961
10	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:25.766	1:25.068	1:25.045
11	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:25.782	1:25.096
12	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:25.630	1:25.219
13	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Haas F1 Team	1:25.711	1:25.225
14	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:25.741	1:25.359
15	24	Guanyu Zhou	CHN	Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN	1:25.594	1:25.408
16	9	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1:25.834
17	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:25.859
18	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN	1:25.892
19	23	Alexander Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1:26.028
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:26.054