Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will start on pole position for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after a qualifying session where some of his rivals squandered their chances.
He will be joined on the front row by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who pulled a lap out of nowhere at the end of Q3.
The other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz had an early exit from qualifying after being impeded in Q1, meaning he will start 16th.
Sainz was unhappy with some of the other drivers as he felt like they purposefully blocked him while he was on his lap.
He said: "Between us drivers, we know that if you do a corner one or two seconds in front, you're going to make them lose a tenth or two in the corner.
I see people as the weekends have gone by when it's tight in Q1 or Q2 giving a bit of dirty air on purpose in some corners, maybe to make the other driver lose some time in corners which we don't consider impeding because it's not like you need to lift.
"But you know you're giving him dirty air, and you know you're giving him a bad run in that corner.
“Everybody is doing it. If you put yourself in a bad track position, you're going to suffer more.”
One team that did well with both drivers was McLaren, who bounced back from their embarrassing run in Las Vegas and put both cars in the top five.
Oscar Piastri will start the race in third place, while Lando Norris may be slightly disappointed with fifth as he made several mistakes on his final run and couldn’t improve.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton qualified 11th, having been unhappy with the balance of the car all weekend, meaning it will be an uphill battle in the race.
Hamilton’s teammate George Russell will start fourth, with the rest of the top ten being a proper mixed bag of drivers.
AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda will start sixth, followed by the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg, and then Sergio Perez’s Red Bull will be ninth.
Pierre Gasly’s Alpine rounds out the top ten, while his teammate Esteban Ocon is 12th, putting Hamilton in an all-French sandwich.
Logan Sargeant may also be rueing his qualifying session, as all his lap times were deleted because of track limit infringements.
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What to look out for in the race
The most obvious drivers to keep an eye on in the race are Hamilton and Sainz, who are out of position on the grid.
The Formula 2 sprint race showed that overtaking is possible at the Yas Marina Circuit this year, so maybe we can finally see some good racing at the $1 billion venue.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is not well known for its attrition; however, a safety car has been deployed in nearly half of the races held here since 2009.
This means that a well-timed intervention could flip a predictable two-stop race on its head in an instant.
Strategy is always the deciding factor at this track, as despite high hopes, overtaking will remain very difficult, even on the recently revised layout of the circuit.
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Final comments and predictions
The last race of the season will bring one of the most dominant campaigns in Formula 1 history to a close.
Max Verstappen has shattered his own record for most wins in a season and will overtake Sebastian Vettel’s 53 career wins if he finishes first on Sunday.
A resounding reliability record and crushing consistency have consolidated Red Bull’s stranglehold on this era of ground-effect cars in Formula 1.
Thus, I think Verstappen will extend his race-winning streak to seven this weekend to cap off the third crown of his career.
I think Russell will take second place as he should overtake the McLaren of Piastri early in the race and beat Leclerc on strategy.
I also think Piastri will maintain his grid position, beating his teammate, and several others to claim the third podium position of his career.
Regardless of the outcomes of the race, this will be a season that will go down in history as one of the greatest in terms of upcoming and established talent making their mark.
