© Vladimir RysMax On Pole For Season ShowdownAbu Dhabi witnesses the Bulls qualify P1 and P4 ahead of Sunday’s season finale.
MaxVerstappenkickedoffhisfinal-roundbidforthe2021FormulaOneDriver’sChampionshipwithastunningdisplayofpaceinqualifyingfortheAbuDhabiGrandPrixtoclaimhis10thpolepositionofthecampaignandbeattitlerivalLewisHamiltonbyalmostthree-tenthsofasecond.
Max’s march to what could prove to be his most important pole position of the season was aided by Sergio Pérez who provided a crucial tow on his first run. Max then returned the favour to boost the Mexican to fourth place on the grid behind McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Checo Nailing The Corner In Abu Dhabi© Getty Images
The Bulls ran early in Q1 with Max quickly moving to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:23.680. Checo then slotted into P4 with a 1:24.253 that put him behind the quick-looking AlphaTauri cars of Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda.
The Mercedes drivers then appeared and Hamilton jumped straight to P1 with an opening flying lap of 1:23.266, as Bottas shuffled Max down to third with a lap of 1:23.367.
Checo then began to slip down the order and fell to P9 before he found more pace on his second run and vaulted to third place with a lap of 1:23.577.
There was then a brief red flag when one of the Haas cars clipped a bollard in the final corner and the debris ended up on the racing line on the corner exit, where McLaren’s Lando Norris then ran over it.
The session restarted with six minutes left on the clock and in the final runs Hamilton improved to 1:22.845 to head Q1 in front of Bottas, who ended the segment in P2 with a time of 1:23.117.
Max closed out the segment in P3 thanks to an improved time of 1:23.332, just 0.018s ahead of Checo who also found more pace to claim P4 ahead of Tsunoda.
Eliminated at the end of the session were Williams' drivers Nicholas Latifi and George Russell in P16 and P17 respectively, the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Räikkönen in P18 and the Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in 19th and 20th places.
Under The Bright Lights Of Yas Marina Circuit© Getty Images
In the second segment, the Bulls went out on medium tyres, as did Hamilton and Bottas. Max opened with a good lap on the yellow-banded tyres and his lap of 1:23.189 put him second just 0.004s behind Hamilton.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz then popped up with a lap of 1:23.174 on softs to take top spot, and as he did so, Max reported that he had flat spotted one of his medium tyres.
Not wanting to start the race on a damaged set of mediums, Max switched to softs for his final run. It was a move mirrored by Checo, whose opening time was only good enough for P10 ahead of the final flying lap.
And good laps by both saw Max take top spot in Q2 with a lap of 1:22.80, with Checo three tenths further back in P2. The Bulls will therefore start the race on soft tyres. Behind them Hamilton and Bottas took third and fourth and will start on mediums.
Eliminated at the end of the segment were Alpine’s Fernando Alonso in P11 ahead of Gasly, whose brake problems continued, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi and the second Aston of Sebastian Vettel.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021: Qualifying
Setting The Pace In Quali At Yas Marina Circuit© Getty Images
Max Going For It On Softs In Quali© Getty Images
Max Starts Final Race Of Season On P1© Getty Images
Checo Giving It His All In Quali© Getty Images
Dutch Fans Bring The Noise To Abu Dhabi© Getty Images
Max Thrilled With P1 In Quali© Getty Images
Max Nailing Quali Lap On Softs© Getty Images
In Q3, the Bulls played a pitch-perfect team game in the opening runs of Q3 with Checo leading Max out on track. And after providing a crucial tow for the Dutchman, he backed off and let the championship leader surge past to set a blistering time of 1:22.109.
That left Max on provisional pole ahead of Hamilton, but the support from Checo left the Mexican in P6. The perfect thank you was for Max to give Checo a lift on the Mexican’s second lap and the Mexican jumped to an eventual fourth place on the grid behind McLaren’s Lando Norris.
The opening run pace from Max was so strong that in the final runs there was no response from Mercedes, and Hamilton was forced to settle for second place, 0.371s adrift of the Dutch driver.
With Norris putting in a good final flying lap to edge Checo out to fourth, fifth place in qualifying went to Sainz. The Ferrari driver also put in a good final lap to finish four hundredths of a second ahead of Bottas. Charles Leclerc qualified seventh in the second Ferrari ahead of AlphaTauri’s impressive Yuki Tsunoda, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo.
Max Delivers Great Drive To Claim P1 In Quali© Getty Images
AbuDhabiGrandPrixQualifying
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Max Verstappen | Lewis Hamilton | Lando Norris | Sergio Pérez | Carlos Sainz | Valtteri Bottas | Charles Leclerc | Yuki Tsunoda | Esteban Ocon | Daniel Ricciardo |
| Red Bull Racing Honda | Mercedes | McLaren | Red Bull Racing Honda | Ferrari | Mercedes | Ferrari | AlphaTauri | Alpine | McLaren |
| 1.22.109 | 1.22.480 | 1.22.931 | 1.22.947 | 1.22.992 | 1.23.036 | 1.23.122 | 1.23.220 | 1.23.389 | 1.23.409 |
Season Finale Quali Pole Goes To Max© Getty Images
It's always good to have a performance like this one today, but there are no gurantees for tomorrow, I still expect it to be a really hard battle.
“It’s always good to have a performance like this one today, but there are no guarantees for tomorrow, I still expect it to be a really hard battle. I originally planned to start on the mediums but I flat spotted my tyres so I had to go onto the softs, I actually felt okay on the softs during the long runs so hopefully it will work out tomorrow in the race. So far, the car has been good and throughout the practice sessions we made some good improvements to the car. I think everything worked out well, especially with Checo’s help, it was nicely executed. He’s a great teammate and a real pleasure to work with so a big thank you to him. I hope we have a good start and from there on in we can have a great race.”
Checo Focused On Season Showdown In The Desert© Getty Images
“I think our teamwork today was great, especially for Q3 and I am pleased for the Team and the result, it was very nice to see Max taking the pole. Max and I talked about the tow together and with the Team, we managed to do a great one! It is very difficult to time it, if you are too close you can hurt the other car and lose some downforce. It worked perfectly; I think if we tried it again then it is very likely it would go wrong! This weekend has been a lot of work for everyone in the Team and we have been pushing extremely hard so I am just pleased we managed to work it out. Lining up fourth on the grid is not ideal for me but that wasn’t the main thing today. I lost out on P3 in the final corner but it’s not a disaster, there is still plenty of things I can do tomorrow. My aim will be to make a difference at the front, I will try to get Lando at the start so I can support Max early on. There is still a lot we can do starting on the soft tyre; it is a long game and we don’t think the starting tyre is going to dictate too much. I think there is a great race ahead of us.”
Christian Calm Before Final Race Weekend© Getty Images
That was one of Max's best laps of the year, but now we need to try and convert that tomorrow.
“That was one of Max's best laps of the year, but now we need to try and convert that tomorrow. Both runs in Q3 were exceptional and it was great teamwork from Checo to give him the tow like he did, it was worth a tenth or two, but not half a second. Max has given it his all and is driving his heart out, he’s thrown everything at it today. Credit has to be given to Checo, he has been a real dutiful teammate and sacrificed his laps tonight, we can't ask for more than that. When we discussed strategies this morning we were very much 50/50, so we're not overly upset to be starting on the softs, the medium is a bit more robust but it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Track position will also be crucial given the degradation. We've just got to get our heads down and run our best race tomorrow, as we know how good Mercedes are around this track, it's one of Lewis' strongest circuits, so we need to focus on ourselves and hopefully we’ll do enough to win it.”
