F1 Qualifying Results 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Event: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Track: Yas Marina Circuit
Max Verstappen driving the (33) Red Bull Racing RB16B Honda (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)
Weather: dry 29.5°C
Tarmac: dry 25.4°C
Humidity: 55.9%
Wind: 0.3 m/s NE
Pressure: 1018.5 bar
Max Verstappen qualified as quickest for the 13th time in his F1 career and scored pole position for tomorrow's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver will start from P1 for 10th time this season. It was the 73rd pole for the Red Bull Racing team.
Q1
Sebastian Vettel was the first driver who entered the track in daylight. After the first run both Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton was on P1 with a 1:23:226 min and Bottas behind him on +0.101s. Max Verstappen was 3rd in the Red Bull, but improved halfway Q1 toward P2 on only +0.056s behind his title rival.
With 6.25 minutes to go Q1 was red flagged to pick up a bollard from the mainstraight, that was picked up by Haas driver Mick Schumacher on the apex of the last corner. The session was restarted very quickly and with 5 minutes to go the following drivers had to improve to make it into Q2: Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo), Nicholas Latifi (Williams), MIck Schumacher (Haas) and NIkita Mazepin (Haas).
Both Mercedes drivers gone out for a last lap to try and beat their quickest lap time. Hamilton improved 0.4s to 1:22.845 min. Verstappen stayed in the pits and Bottas moved up to P2. Vettel improved enough to make it into Q2 and pushed Williams driver George Russell out.
Q2
Max Verstappen with Lewis Hamilton in parc ferme during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi at Yas Marina Circuit (Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images)
In Q2 al lot of teams choose to started on the 'yellow' medium tyres. The F1 title protagonists Hamilton and Verstappen were the fastest after the first run. Hamilton recorded a 1:23.185 min, while Verstappen was only +0.004s slower on P2. Bottas was on P3 on only +0.061s. Carlos Sainz went even faster than Hamilton in the Ferrari, but used a set of soft tyres for it. There was only 0.577s between P1 and P10 now.
With 5 minutes to go the drivers in the dropzone were: Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo), Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri).
The drivers who will start the race on medium tyres are Hamilton, Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda. All other drivers will start on softs. Ricciardo was the only driver in the dropzone who improved enough to make it to Q3. Alonso was the one he eliminated. Ricciardo was just starting his lap when Alonso came close behind him and was compromised by Ricciardo's late acceleration.
Q3
The battle for pole was kicked off by Red Bull with Perez in front of Verstappen. who was in front of Hamilton in the first run. Verstappen's first run was a 1:22.109 min. Hamilton was 2nd but +0.551s slower. Perez was 3rd quickest on +0.859s.
In the second run both Mercedes drivers went out as first, but could not improve. Verstappen did improve but aborted his lap when he heard that Hamilton didn't make it. Norris scored a brilliant P3 for McLaren.
Qualifying Times 2021 Saudi Arabian GP
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
| 1 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:23.322 | 1:22.800 | 1:22.109 | 19 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:22.845 | 1:23.145 | 1:22.480 | 19 |
| 3 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:23.553 | 1:23.256 | 1:22.931 | 20 |
| 4 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull | 1:23.350 | 1:23.135 | 1:22.947 | 24 |
| 5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:23.624 | 1:23.174 | 1:22.992 | 22 |
| 6 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:23.117 | 1:23.246 | 1:23.036 | 20 |
| 7 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:23.467 | 1:23.202 | 1:23.122 | 23 |
| 8 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1:23.428 | 1:23.404 | 1:23.220 | 22 |
| 9 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1:23.764 | 1:23.420 | 1:23.389 | 20 |
| 10 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 1:23.829 | 1:23.448 | 1:23.409 | 19 |
| 11 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1:23.846 | 1:23.460 | 12 | |
| 12 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1:23.489 | 1:24.043 | 16 | |
| 13 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:24.061 | 1:24.066 | 17 | |
| 14 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1:24.118 | 1:24.251 | 17 | |
| 15 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 1:24.225 | 18 | ||
| 16 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 1:24.338 | 8 | ||
| 17 | 63 | George Russell | Williams | 1:24.423 | 7 | ||
| 18 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo | 1:24.779 | 8 | ||
| 19 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 1:24.906 | 9 | ||
| 20 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 1:25.685 | 9 |
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Lays back , light up a smoke and says to Jax , how was that for you?
Regardless of the Boos.., he never misses a trick.!
Awesome quali guys! F1 has never been so excited as this weekend!
And Max would've have been on pole last week also had he not binned it. But what happened during that race again?! Which driver had the better race pace?! So keep blowing smoke Super Fly. Lol
dick head
Bottas 6th. Really. So much for him saying he would help Lewis and MB. Unfortunately, I'm away for the weekend, so I can't watch any of the F1. I'm just hoping it's a clean race and may the best man win
So a brief summary. Mercs on hards and mediums are superior again. Max flat spotted his mediums in Q2 so had to switch to softs to start the race. Q3 the Bulls reduced rear wing downforce on Max's car and set up Perez for the tow in the second sector run, which put Max on pole. Merc was also thinking of setting up a tow, but Lewis declined. Hmm. He produced the fastest first sector time in Q3. So just like Jeddah, that Merc is setup to maximize race pace. Bring it on!!!!!!!!
Max’s tyre situation is disadvantageous, so how this will play out is interesting. Anything's possible.