Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed the pole position for tomorrow’s Formula One’s season-ending 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, edging out seven-time defending Formula 1 world champion, Lewis Hamilton, in their battle for the world title.
Verstappen recorded the fastest time after receiving a helpful tow on his fastest lap from his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, that allowed him to springboard past Hamilton’s time. Verstappen’s non-towed laps, however, were all slower than Hamilton, who will start the race on medium grade tires while Red Bull, realizing they might not have the long term pace to keep up with the Mercedes, elected to place soft tires on Verstappen’s car and try and grab the lead at the beginning of the race even though the soft tires will degrade quicker than Hamilton’s medium tires during the course of the race.
Both drivers are tied on points – 369.5 points apiece – going into the race, but Verstappen holds the tiebreaker, having won nine races this season to Hamilton’s eight, meaning Hamilton will merely have to finish ahead of Verstappen in the race to claim his eighth F1 world title.
2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Top 10 Qualifiers
1] Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:22.109
2] Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:22.480
3] Lando Norris McLaren 1:22.931
4] Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:22.947
5] Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 1:22.992
6] Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:23.036
7] Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:23.122
8] Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:23.220
9] Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:23.389
10] Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:23.409