MAX MAXIMISED RB16 POTENTIAL, WILL START ABU DHABI GP ON POLE

Max Verstappen scored his first pole position of 2020 and the third of his career with in qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with the Dutchman putting in a phenomenal final lap in Q3 to beat Mercedes Valtteri Bottas by 0.025s. Lewis Hamilton finished third ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Bottas set the pace in the opening segment of qualifying, Hamilton slotted into second place but his lap was swiftly deleted for violating track limits at Turn 20. Verstappen, meanwhile, had a tricky start to the session when Williams released Nicholas Latifi into his path in the pit lane. The Dutchman was forced to lock-up and flat-spotted his tyres.

He went out and set a time but in the final minutes of the session he dropped to P10 and was forced to run again. He immediately vaulted to P2 behind Bottas. Verstappen was eventually shuffled to P4 as Hamilton grabbed top spot in the final runs and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took third ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.

At the other end of the timesheet, Kimi Räikkönen was eliminated in 16th place after being beaten to P15 by team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi. The Italian deprive his Finnish team-mate by almost half a second to edge their private qualifying battle 9-8. Räikkönen was followed out of the session by Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, Williams’ George Russell, Haas’ Pietro Fittipaldi and Latifi.

In Q2 most of drivers went out on medium tyres but Albon had his opening lap deleted for a track limits infringement at Turn 21. He dropped to P13 on the timesheet in the closing stages and it meant that he needed a run on soft tyres to guarantee progress.

Verstappen admitted dissatisfaction with the lap, saying the yellow tyres had gone off in the final sector. He went for another run, on mediums, and in the final moments he jumped to P3 behind Hamilton and Bottas. Albon followed him across the line with a good lap to take P4.

Somewhat surprisingly Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo were eliminated in P10 and P11 respectively, with the Renault being edged out Q3 by the AlphaTauris of Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly. Also eliminated at this stage of the session were 13th-placed Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari followed by Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Pérez. Facing a back-of-the-grid start due an engine change, Pérez failed to set a time in Q2.

In the final top-10 shootout, Verstappen declared his intent with his opening run as he posted a lap to split Mercedes`s drivers, with Bottas on provisional pole. When the final runs began Hamilton was the first out and after setting purple times he took P1. That looked impressive but then Bottas snuck past the benchmark by six hundredths of a seconds and it looked like Mercedes might be heading towards another front row lock-out.

Verstappen, though, had other ideas and with a perfectly constructed lap the Dutch ace found the time required to edge past Bottas to claim his and the team’s first pole position of the year.

Behind the top three, McLaren’s Norris took an impressive fourth place to edge Albon by seven hundredths of a second. Sixth place went to Carlos Sainz Jr. in the second McLaren with Kvyat an excellent seventh for AlphaTauri’s ahead of Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, Leclerc and Gasly.

ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX - QUALIFYING
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP
1.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:35.246
2.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	1:35.271	+ 0.025
3.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:35.332	+ 0.086
4.	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:35.497	+ 0.251
5.	Alex Albon	Red Bull	1:35.571	+ 0.325
6.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren	1:35.815	+ 0.569
7.	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri	1:35.963	+ 0.717
8.	Lance Stroll	Racing Point	1:36.046	+ 0.800
9.	Charles Leclerc*	Ferrari	1:36.065	+ 0.819
10.	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1:36.242	+ 0.996
Q2 Fastest Time: Lewis Hamilton - 1:35.467
11.	Esteban Ocon	Renault	1:36.359	+ 1.893
12.	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:36.406	+ 1.940
13.	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:36.631	+ 1.165
14.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	1:38.248	+ 2.782
15.	Sergio Perez**	Racing Point	/	/
Q1 Fastest Time: Lewis Hamilton - 1:35.528
16.	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	1:37.555	+ 2.027
17.	Kevin Magnussen**	Haas	1:37.863	+ 2.335
18.	George Russell	Williams	1:38.045	+ 2.517
19.	Pietro Fittipaldi	Haas	1:38.173	+ 2.645
20.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	1:38.443	+ 2.915
107% time: 1:42.215
*three grid places for causing a collision ** required to start race from back of grid HYBRID ERA - YAS MARINA 2014 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes AMG - 1:40.480 2015 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes AMG - 1:40.237 2016 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:38.755 2017 Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes AMG - 1:36.231 2018 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:34.794 2019 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:34.779 2020 Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 1:35.246 @MkFormula1 - REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA