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ABU DHABI QUALI: VERSTAPPEN TOPS THE TIMES WITH A FERRARI – RED BULL SHOWDOWN BEHIND

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The stage is set for a battle to the line tomorrow in Abu Dhabi – but not like last year. This year, second place in the 2022 Drivers Championship is up for grabs, with the two drivers in contention lining up second and third on the grid heading into the last race of the season.

Max Verstappen starts from pole position tomorrow, after posting the quickest lap of the day at 1.23.824, with his teammate Sergio Perez starting from beside him on P2. Charles Leclerc will start in P3; both the Ferrari driver and Perez are level on points coming into the final race for the season, and both have their eyes on the second spot in the 2022 Drivers Championship.

Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz rounds out the top 4, with the Mercedes’ of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finishing in fifth and sixth respectively.

The last Qualifying session of the season was also a host to a number of goodbyes and last laps, with four drivers not returning to the grid next year. Daniel Ricciardo, Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi failed to secure their seats within their teams for next year; Daniel Ricciardo has been confirmed to be Red Bull’s third driver by Red Bull’s adviser Helmut Marko, meaning he will not be racing, but will still be involved with team fulfilling other responsibilities such as Public Relations and Simulator testing. A similar story goes for Haas’ Mick Schumacher, who is rumoured to be heading to the Mercedes garage next year as their third driver. Nicholas Latifi has failed to secure any sort of seat for next season and will not be continuing within F1.

All eyes were on Sebastian Vettel as he took part in the final Qualifying session of his career as he retires after 16 seasons in the sport. Making it all the way into Q3, he will start in 9th place in his last ever F1 race tomorrow; his teammate Lance Stroll starts from 14th tomorrow, posting a lap half a second slower than Vettel.

The last seven races at Abu Dhabi have seen the driver starting from Pole take first place at the end of the race – but will this continue tomorrow with the battle for second in the Drovers Championship raging on?

Q1

First onto the track in the Qualifying session at Yas Marina was Latifi, who was quickly knocked off the top spot by the two Alpha Tauris of Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda. Very few of the teams were in a hurry to get a time on the table; most teams waited a few minutes to head out onto the circuit. There were 13 minutes to go when the Constructors Champions Red Bull, the Ferraris and Mclarens set off on an out lap. The very last team to leave the pits were the Alpines.

The first round of flying laps saw the battle between Perez and Leclerc continue, stealing away fastest sectors of the track from each other, before Verstappen out-paced both of the drivers.

Following the first round of times, many cars returned to the pits for minor adjustments, with Yuki Tsunoda being called to the weigh bridge for a spot check. With two and a half minutes to go, there was a flurry of activity with all cars once again taking to the circuit except the Ferraris.

The cars unable to keep up the pace of the rest of the pack and therefore retiring in Q1 in 16th to 20th respectively were the Haas of last week’s polesitter Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo, and the two Williams drivers of Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi finishing in 19th and 20th place.

Q2

Once again, the drivers were in no rush to get onto the track in Q2, with the two Mercedes drivers being the first to begin their session. Almost immediately, Hamilton was on the radio complaining of brake problems.

Two minutes later, the rest of the field began to pour out of the pits, as George Russell posted a time of 1.25.363

As the Red Bulls crossed the line, Perez posted a time quicker than Verstappen with 7:30 to go. The Mercedes drivers found themselves unable to match the times of the champions even with the improvements they’ve made in the last few weeks. After posting the quickest time, Perez returned to the pits to have tweaks made to his car.

Sebastian Vettel continued to have fun in his final Quali, posting another great lap and making it safely through to Q3, even after being held up by his former team Red Bull on two separate occasions.

Guanyu Zhou, Lance Stroll, Mich Schumacher, Yuki Tsunoda and Fernando Alonso failed to post a quick enough time and returned to the pits for the last time in the session. They finished in 15th to 11th respectively.

Q3

Once again, the two Mercedes were the first two cars on track for the final leg of Quali, quickly followed by the rest of the field, but noticeably without Max Verstappen. Verstappen’s car had a “little problem” causing a delay coming out of the garage; much to the confusion of teammate Sergio Perez on the radio, leading to speculation that the two would be working together on the approaching flying lap. Verstappen, however, was soon out onto the track as Perez outpaced rival Leclerc.

Vettel’s last ever lap in Q3 was a special one not hindered by a Red Bull. With the aim of relying on one lap, Vettel drove around an almost-empty track, with nobody in front and only Daniel Ricciardo a good bit behind. It seemed like a fitting sendoff for the four-time World Champion, as he finished a clean lap and posted a time worthy of P7 – which was then knocked down to P9 for the race start tomorrow as the rest of the field took to the track again.

Verstappen once again shot to the top of the field to P1, very narrowly avoiding exceeding track limits as he turned the last corner in his flying lap. Perez settled for P2 below his teammate, closely followed by Leclerc four-hundreths of a second behind and the second Ferrari of Sainz. The two Mercedes of Hamilton and Russell sit in the third row, followed by Mclaren’s Lando Norris and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who also find themselves in a battle as their teams compete for fourth in the Constructors Standings. Vettel and Ricciardo round out the top ten in their last Qualifying (last for a while, potentially, for Daniel) and will start beside each other on the grid tomorrow.