Norris leads all-McLaren front row, Hulkenberg beats Verstappen to fourth · RaceFans

Lando Norris heads a front row lock-out for McLaren in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with Carlos Sainz Jnr starting third behind Oscar Piastri.

McLaren will head into the constructors’ championship deciding race with a considerable advantage over rivals Ferrari, with Sainz third and Charles Leclerc starting 19th on the grid following his ten place grid penalty after he was eliminated from Q2 in 14th.

Nico Hulkenberg is set to start fourth but is under investigation for overtaking in the pit exit road against the race director’s instructions. Max Verstappen will start fifth, with Lewis Hamilton set to start his final race for Mercedes 16th after he was eliminated from Q1 in 18th.

Q1

The final qualifying session of the season got underway very lazily with no drivers in a rush to take to the track. Fernando Alonso scrubbed a set of hard tyres, while Aston Martin team mate Lance Stroll posted the first time of the evening.

Sergio Perez was the next to post a lap time, which was immediately deleted for exceeding track limits at the exit of the first corner. Franco Colapinto also lost his first timed lap for the same infraction at the first corner.

Carlos Sainz Jnr was the fastest of the initial runners with a 1’23.487, with Max Verstappen just three hundredths of a second slower and Kevin Magnussen carrying on Haas’ promising pace from practice in third ahead of the two McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Just six tenths of a second covered first to 16th, the cut off point for Q2, as cars returned to the pit lane to prepare for their final runs.

Perez headed out for his final run but the stewards announced that his original deleted lap would be reinstated after looking closer at the replays. Red Bull did not inform him until he had completed his second push lap, which was not an improvement, leaving him unhappy that he had unnecessarily used another set of tyres.

Perez’s first time was good enough to get through, but Lewis Hamilton had dropped into the danger zone and needed to improve to reach Q2. However, he found Magnussen’s Haas to the inside at turn 14 as he completed his final push lap. Magnussen hit the apex bollard which was knocked under Hamilton’s car. Hamilton went on to miss the cut by under a tenth of a second in 18th in his final qualifying session for Mercedes.

Less than half a second covered the top 15, with Alexander Albon knocked out in 16th along with Zhou Guanyu in his final qualifying session for Sauber. Hamilton was out in 18th, with the two rookies Franco Colapinto and Jack Doohan eliminated slowest.

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Q1 result

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Q2

After the traffic problems at the end of Q1, Verstappen was eager to get out early to set his first lap time of the second phase. He posted a 1’22.998 to set the initial benchmark, and Russell could not get within eight tenths of a second of that with his first lap.

The McLarens fared better at matching Verstappen’s pace, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri going second and third fastest with their first flying laps. Yuki Tsunoda got within half a second of Verstappen to go fourth, while Carlos Sainz Jnr was fifth.

After a scary moment at turn 14 on his first push lap saw him almost slide into the barrier, Charles Leclerc was sitting just nine thousandths of a second in safety in tenth place, ahead of the two Aston Martins of Alonso and Stroll. Magnussen also needed to improve to continue in 13th, as did Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly.

While 14 of the 15 drivers returned to the track for a second run in the closing minutes, Verstappen climbed out of the car, seemingly confident that his fastest time would be quick enough to reach Q3. Everyone else took to the track on fresh tyres, except for Stroll on a used set.

Gasly’s improvement dropped Leclerc into the drop zone, but the Ferrari driver had appeared to go safe by setting the quickest time of the session. However, that time was deleted for exceeding track limits at the exit of turn one. As a result, the Ferrari driver was knocked out – another to the team’s championship hopes.

Perez only just squeezed through into Q3 by four hundredths of a second, with Bottas also reaching Q3 in what may be his final ever qualifying session. That meant that the two RBs of Tsunoda and Liam Lawson were eliminated, with Stroll out in 13th, Leclerc 14th and Magnussen eight tenths slower than his team mate in 15th.

The stewards annoucned that Nico Hulkenberg will be investigated after the session for allegedly overtaking at the pit exit road, which is forbidden for this weekend in the race director’s event notes.

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Q2 result

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Q3

Having reached Q3 on a single run, Verstappen headed into Q3 with the advantage of two sets of soft tyres for the critical final phase of qualifying.

He used the first set to post the quickest time of the first runs, but only after almost losing the car and having to catch the car with a dramatic moment of oversteer exiting the final corner. That allowed Norris to get within four thousandths of a second of the Red Bull, with Piastri four hundredths of a second slower with his first effort that was originally deleted for exceeding track limits at turn one before being reinstated.

Verstappen was the last car out on track at the end of the session as the remaining nine drivers took to the circuit with fresh tyres for their final qualifying runs of 2024.

Perez improved to go fourth, but his time was beaten by both Bottas and then Hulkenberg, who went quickest of all. Piastri took the top spot with a 1’22.595, but that was beaten by his team mate Norris by two tenths of a second. Sainz improved to third, with only Verstappen left to cross the line. However, Verstappen could not improve on his original push lap, leaving him only fifth and confirming the McLaren one-two.

Gasly qualified in sixth ahead of Russell and Alonso with Bottas taking ninth on the grid for what could be his final grand prix. Perez slumped to tenth by the end of the session, three tenths slower than his team mate.

After his pole lap, Norris asked McLaren to check if Sainz ahead of him had respected the maximum delta time given how much ground he made on the Ferrari. Sainz was investigated by the stewards for exceeding the maximum time, but no further action was taken, confirming his third place.

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Q3 result