F1 Abu Dhabi GP: Verstappen beats Hamilton to pole for title decider
It looked as though Mercedes had the advantage going into Q3, but a combination of fantastic teamwork from Red B🧸ull and a brilliant lap from Verstappen enabled him to snatch his 10th pole of the season ahead of his championship rival.
Verstappen was boosted by a tow from Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez on his first run to go half a second clear of Hamilton, before the Mercedes driver 🧜responded with 🌼an improvement on his final Q3 effort.
But it was not enough to prevent Verstappen from securing a comforta💟ble pole with the Dutc🐻hman finishing qualifying 0.371s faster than Hamilton.
It sets up a mout𒁏h-watering prospect with the two championship protagonists sharing the front row of the grid he𒆙ading into their winner-takes-all contest.
But Verstappen will start Sundayꩵ’s race on softer tyres th🌌an Hamilton after Red Bull opted for a different strategic approach when Verstappen flat-spotted his medium tyres in Q2 and switched to softs.
Verstappen will look to take advantage of the grippier soft tyres t𓄧o maintain his position ahea🍃d of Hamilton, who will start the race on mediums.
Behind the battle for pole, Lando Norris produced a stunning late lap in🌟 his McLaren to snatch third on the grid ahead of Perez’s Reꦅd Bull.
Carlos Sainz put his Ferrari fifth ahead🍰 of Valt𝓰teri Bottas, who was only sixth-fastest for Mercedes.
The second Ferrari of Charles Lecler𒊎c was seventh, ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, while Daniel Ricciardo completed the top-10 for McLaren.
Fernando Alonso missed out on a Q3 spot by just 0.012s as he took 11t๊h for Alpiꦺne, ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll outpaced Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo or 13th, whil👍e🎀 Sebastian Vettel was eliminated in 15th after getting heavily compromised in a messy traffic queue at the end of Q2.
Nicholas Latifi ওout-qualified George Russell for their last race as Williams teammate♑s before Russell makes the switch to Mercedes.
Just 0.085s separated the Willꦫiams pairing as Latifi secured 16th place ahead of Russell.
Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkoneꦰn was 18th-fastest in his final F1 qualifying session before the Finn calls time on his illustrious career following Sundaꦗy’s grand prix.
Raikkonen ended up j🎃u🧸st a tenth clear of Mick Schumacher, who was over seven-tenths quicker than Haas teammate Nikita Mazepin.
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