Event: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Track: Yas Marina Circuit
Weather: dry 28.6°C
Tarmac: dry 33.1°C
Humidity : 71%
Wind : 2.4 m/s NE
Pressure: 1014.9 bar
Max Verstappen scored the 20th F1 pole position of his career during the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying session today. The Red Bull driver will start from P1 for the third time in a row at Yas Marina circuit. It was the 81st pole for Red Bull Racing.
Q1 Quali Session
The sun had already set as the 20 current Formula 1 drivers started the fight for pole position for tomorrows Grand Prix with the 20 fastest cars on earth.
Alpine driver Fernando Alonso was the last driver to put a lap time on the timesheet were Red Bull driver Max Verstappen occupied P1 with a 1:24.754 min. The Dutch driver only was 0.066s faster on one lap of Yas Marina circuit than his teammate Sergio Pérez.
With 5 minutes to go the drivers who had to improve to get into Q2 were: Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel, Haas driver Mick Schumacher, Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas, Williams driver Alex Albon and Williams driver Nicholas Latifi.
When the chequered flag dropped the drives who improved enough were Vettel and Schumacher. Vettel even made it to P6 in his last Q1 of his F1 career. Both pushed out AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen who got his maiden pole last week.
Q2 Quali Session
The second session was kind of similar to Q1. Pérez now was quickest and Verstappen was second after the first run. When both Mercedes drivers did a second run, Hamilton could snatch P2 from Verstappen.
With 5 minutes to go the drivers in the drop zone now were AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda, McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo, Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll, Haas driver Mick Schumacher and Alfa Romeo driver Guanyu Zhou.
At the end of Q2 Ricciardo and Vettel pushed enough to make it into Q3.
Q3 Quali Session
The battle for pole position for the 2022 Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix was kicked off by both Mercedes drivers who went out first. Verstappen had a little problem getting out of the garage.
After the first run the man on pole position was Verstappen with a 1:23.988 min. Sainz was second, Pérez third, Leclerc 4th, Hamilton 5th, Russell 6th, Ocon on 7. Vettel and Ricciardo started their run after the top 7 already had set a lap time. Norris waited with his run until the very last opportunity.
In the last run Pérez got a small tow from Verstappen on the long straights, but could not beat his teammate for pole.
Last years pole position was won by Max Verstappen in the Red Bull RB16B with a 1:22.109 min.
Qualifying Times 2022 Abu Dhabi GP
Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:24.754 | 1:24.622 | 1:23.824 | 17 |
2 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull | 1:24.820 | 1:24.419 | 1:24.052 | 18 |
3 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:25.211 | 1:24.517 | 1:24.092 | 17 |
4 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:25.090 | 1:24.521 | 1:24.242 | 16 |
5 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:25.594 | 1:24.774 | 1:24.508 | 21 |
6 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:25.545 | 1:24.940 | 1:24.511 | 20 |
7 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:25.387 | 1:24.903 | 1:24.769 | 17 |
8 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1:25.735 | 1:25.007 | 1:24.830 | 17 |
9 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 1:25.523 | 1:24.974 | 1:24.961 | 18 |
10 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 1:25.766 | 1:25.068 | 1:25.045 | 15 |
11 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1:25.782 | 1:25.096 | 12 | |
12 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1:25.630 | 1:25.219 | 15 | |
13 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 1:25.711 | 1:25.225 | 15 | |
14 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:25.741 | 1:25.359 | 15 | |
15 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 1:25.594 | 12 | ||
16 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:25.834 | 9 | ||
17 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1:25.859 | 9 | ||
18 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 1:25.892 | 6 | ||
19 | 23 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1:26.028 | 9 | ||
20 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 1:26.054 | 9 |
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