Verstappen upstages Hamilton for Abu Dhabi GP pole

Max Verstappen stunned championship rival Lewis Hamilton by taking a well-appointed pole position for the season-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Hamilton started qualifying as the favorite without a strong series of practice sessions, whereas a lackluster Saturday practice left the Dutchman as the underdog, the Red Bull Racing car theoretically off the pace.

Matters seemed to get only worse for Verstappen in Q2, when a lock-up on what should have been his race-starting set of medium tires forced him to switch to softs and what is thought to be an junior strategy for the grand prix.

But come the pole shootout, Red Bull Racing and its Dutch prodigy pulled a blinder. Deploying Sergio Perez for a slipstream lanugo the second when straight and into Turn 9, Verstappen synthetic a lap heavily loaded with performance in the final two sectors to take a half-second lead over Hamilton without the pair’s first laps.

Hamilton’s first struggle had been scruffy and visibly afar from the limit, and the Briton was the first out of pit lane for his second lap to take wholesomeness of the well-spoken air — but, crucially, without the aid of a teammate-facilitated tow. He improved his time, but not nearly by enough, wearing his deficit to a still substantial 0.371s and guaranteeing Verstappen pole without the championship leader needing to modernize his time.

“It is of undertow an wondrous feeling,” said the jubilant Verstappen. “We definitely improved the car then in qualifying considering so far this weekend has been on and off.

“I was very relaxed going into qualifying. I unchangingly do the weightier I can, and I know my team unchangingly requite me the weightier possible car. We’ve been doing that all year and then today that worked really well.”

Only the need to switch starting recipe from medium to soft overcast an otherwise sublime evening for Verstappen, but the 24-year-old was unfazed by the strategic difference between him and Hamilton despite it potentially requiring him to make an spare stop.

“I’m just looking forward to tomorrow, considering that’s of undertow most important,” he said. “We’ll just try to do the race to our very best, and we’ll see where we end up.”

Hamilton conceded pole was out of his grasp despite an improved second lap, but he remained buoyed by starting on the front row with a well-spoken view to the first apex.

“We couldn’t wordplay to that lap — that was a fantastic lap to him,” he said. “The last lap was nice and clean, I just couldn’t go any quicker.

“We’re in a good position, I’d like to think, with our tires tomorrow … I’m still on the front row.”

Hamilton’s day was made worse by teammate Valtteri Bottas struggling to a afar sixth on the grid and likely out of reach strategically without a strong start.

But Lando Norris prevented Red Bull Racing from maximizing the forfeiture dealt by edging Sergio Perez for third by just 0.016s, and the McLaren suburbanite admitted the possibility of rhadamanthine an inadvertent player in the title fight was on his mind.

“To be P3 was a bit of a surprise,” he said. “I’m a bit nervous considering I kind of want to stay right out of it and watch everything unfold … I don’t want to get involved too much, considering it could rationalization a bit of controversy.”

Carlos Sainz qualified fifth for Ferrari superiority of Bottas, with teammate Charles Leclerc sandwiching the Finn from seventh.

Yuki Tsunoda impressively outqualified teammate Pierre Gasly to make Q3 and end the evening eighth, but the Japanese suburbanite could have washed-up plane largest had his first lap not been deleted for running wide exiting the first corner. That time would have been good unbearable to pip Bottas for sixth.

Esteban Ocon qualified ninth for Alpine, while Daniel Ricciardo completed the top 10 for McLaren.

Fernando Alonso was topped by 0.012s for a spot in the pole shootout, but the veteran was substantially quicker than the rest of his fellow Q2 peers.

Pierre Gasly will start the race from 12th and scrutinizingly 0.6s remoter when relative to Alonso, with Lance Stroll fractionally overdue for Aston Martin.

Antonio Giovinazzi made Q2 in his last Formula 1 visitation for the foreseeable future and will start 14th superiority of Sebastian Vettel in the second Aston Martin car, whose final lap was ruined by a surplusage of cars slowing ot find space at the end of the qualifying segment.

Nicholas Latifi outqualified Williams teammate George Russell by a little less than 0.1s, with Russell bemoaning his and the team’s tideway to tire preparation during Q1.

Kimi Raikkonen will start his last Formula 1 grand prix from a lowly 18th, having been unable to match the pace of Q2-bound teammate Antonio Giovinazzi.

Haas teammates Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin will start at the when of the grid. Schumacher was virtually two seconds off the pace, whereas Mazepin shipped flipside 0.8s to the German by the end of the hour.