On Sunday, Verstappen and Hamilton will race for all the marbles.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates—It took soft tires and a tow from his teammate to put Max Verstappen into his 10th pole position of the season Saturday night at the Yas Marina Circuit. Verstappen edged rival Lewis Hamilton and surprising third-place finisher, Lando Norris in his McLaren.
And the win came down to tire strategy. It looked as though Hamilton would have an easy night, but Hamilton decided to use medium tires instead of the softs, which was Verstappen’s choice, and that decision put his Red Bull into the front row with a time of 1:22:880–his best time all weekend.
“It’s an amazing feeling. We improved the car in qualifying,” said Verstappen afterward. “I’m delighted with this. It’s what we wanted, but it was not easy with Mercedes’ form. I was very relaxed going into qualifying. I know my team will give me the best possible car.”
Although Mercedes was caught off guard by Red Bull’s strategy, Hamilton will still start in the front row. “Max did a great lap today,” said Hamilton. “We couldn’t compete with that time in the end there. I couldn’t go any quicker. He fully deserved the pole.”
For Norris, placing third gives the Briton a good to have a good result on Sunday night. “I went for pole, but it didn’t quite work out.”
For the rest of the top ten, Perez took fourth, while Ferrari will have two cars starting from the grid in fifth and seventh place, with Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc, respectively. Valtteri Bottas, in his last race weekend for Mercedes, ended up a disappointing sixth. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon finished eighth, while Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo completed the list.
Hamilton and Verstappen took the opening two sessions, respectively, as both Williams of Nicholas Latifi and George Russell, along with the Haas duo of Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, in the final race weekend of his career, exited the opening round. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, Lance Stroll, Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly, and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Gioviazzi, who will be switching to Formula E, were eliminated from the second.
Sunday’s race (an evening encounter in Abu Dhabi) will be televised live by ESPN2 starting at 8a Eastern time. The outcome will determine whether Verstappen or Hamilton will win Formula One’s 2021 Driver’s Championship.
