Norris on pole as McLarens take the front row for Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Lando Norris took a somewhat surprising pole position today after Max Verstappen had an uncharacteristically poor final lap. With Piastri second fastest it will be an orange front row on tomorrow's starting grid. Carlos Sainz ended up third ahead of Nico Hulkenberg.
Qualifying started with Stroll venturing out on track on the soft tyres, followed by his Aston Martin teammate on the hard tyres. The Mercedes duo followed out on track about a minute later, also on the hard tyres. Those three appeared to head out to get an early feel for the track and scrub the tyres for the race as they all returned to the pits before completing a timed lap.
After Stroll predictibly set the fastest time, Perez was the second driver to get on the board, but he was soon removed as his time got deleted for track limits at Turn 1.
6 minutes had passed already before Verstappen and the two Ferraris fillled the timing board after the Stake Sauber cars and Tsunoda set a timed lap as well.
Halfway into the session, Alonso complete his first timed lap and went 8th fastest whereas Stroll's early lap left him dead last. The Canadian was however on track again and subsequently moved up into 8th himself. After both Mercedes also set their timed laps, ending up in between the Aston Martin duo, only Perez and Colapinto were left without a time as both got a time deletion for track limits.
Four minutes from the end the pitlane exit was very busy and even a minute later cars were still going slow through the pitlane exit, including both Aston Martins who were at risk of being knocked out.
One minute from the end Bottas crossed the finish line and went fastest. Sainz also improved followed Leclerc taking over from Bottas at the top of the timing sheet.
Traffic was definitely an issue with both Mercedes having to go slower than they wanted through the final sector in their warmup lap while having to let past some cars on flying laps. To make matters worse, a loose cone rolled over the track in sector 2 and got stuck under Hamilton's car. Obviously that made any improvement impossible, leaving Hamilton to start his final race for Mercedes in 18th position.
When the missing bollard got replaced, Q2 started slightly later than planned with quietness, only for everybody to suddenly decide to take to the track one minute after the session got going.
Verstappen was the first to complete a timed lap. Neither Ferrari nor Russell could match it. Norris set the fastest first sector but then ended up at exactly one tenth of the Red Bull. Piastri completed his lap around a minute later and stranded at two tenths.
As Verstappen was seen taking off his helmet four and a half minutes before the end of the session the pitlane filled up once again with everybody else trying to go out for another lap.
Hulkenberg immediately showed why everybody had to come out as he went second fastest on his second lap. Magnussen on the other hand improved but didn't get out of the elimination zone. Gasly improved to 3rd before both Ferraris improved on Verstappen's time. Leclerc's time though was quickly deleted, leaving him out in 14th place, hence dead last on the starting grid after the application of his 10-place grid penalty.
Bottas meanwhile again enjoyed his green car and went 9th, stating that was the maximum he could really manage.
Q3 was lit on fire by Nico Hulkenberg who once again completed a very strong lap. Perez failed to beat it and we had to wait for Verstappen to improve on the Haas. Verstappen had a big advantage but then nearly lost it in the final corner, catching the car and crossing the line on the other side of the track while recovering the slippage out of the final corner.
Norris and Sainz were the only other drivers who beat Hulkenberg's lap. Piastri initially did as well but he went off track on the exit of Turn 1 and therefore had his timed lap deleted. Valtteri Bottas played it cool and remained in the pits to go for a single outing. But then, just like with Perez earlier, Piastri got his time back after the team protested. One wonders, given the tiny margins if Leclerc's time in Q2 shouldn't have been reinstated as well, sinc all these occurrences hardly show any space between the track's while line and the car's tyres.
Sergio Perez was first to complete a second timed lap, good for 4th, slotting in between Piastri and Sainz. Moments later Bottas bat Perez while Hulkenberg surprised again and moved up to the top of the timing sheet.
The track was clearly improving as Piastri also found an improvement to go fastest and then Norris doing even better to take provisional pole. Verstappen had a pretty poor second lap in contrast and thereby failed to improve, leaving him in 5th, behind Hulkenberg and enabling McLaren to lock out the front row for tomorrow's season finale.
