Today's Edition
Kuumar Shyam (Abu Dhabi)
Max Verstappen has taken pole position going into the season-ending Formula 1 finale – the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – to continue and spice to a promising nail-biter at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Drivers’ championship leader Lando Norris and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri ensured that the top three places on the grid are atleast confined to themselves in what has shaped into a three-way title fight.
His ultimate benchmark time of 1m 22.207s was two-tenths quicker than Norris’s effort, with the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri a few hundredths further back – meaning all three title challengers will start together at the front of the grid.
Verstappen ends the season with eight pole positions, the most of any driver in 2025. It gives him a major advantage as the last 10 Grands Prix held in Abu Dhabi have all been won from pole position.
He has also tied Lewis Hamilton for the most poles at this track, with both drivers on five apiece. In 75 championships, only 31 have gone down to the final Sunday of the season to decide the ultimate winner.
Norris needs to finish in the top three while Verstappen, 12 points behind, must try to win from the front and hope misfortune strikes the McLaren pair just as it did in 2021 when Lewis Hamilton was denied a chance to outpace him in the final moments of the race because of an erroneous call by the race director Michael Masi.
Verstappen’s pole continues to make McLaren fans anxious who must have hoped that locking out the front row for the main race this Sunday would have improved the probability of keeping Verstappen in check behind.
“Well, in Q2 I stayed on scrubbed tyres, and I think those laps already felt quite decent,” said Verstappen afterwards, having experienced some balance issues in practice. “Then in Q3, around here the track temp is coming down, you know that you can push a bit more, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Pushed on the challenge of setting the car up in Abu Dhabi, given the warmer, unrepresentative FP1 and FP3 sessions, he added: “You have to of course try and guess a little bit how much the track is going to improve, and of course it cools down a lot.”
While Norris said he will "only try to do better for tomorrow’s race" in finding the pace, he did not reveal much, perhaps quietly taking hope from the fact that his advantageous position means he just has to save himself from any on-field drama to finish in the top three and seal his title.
Piastri was more forthcoming, when asked about playing second fiddle to Verstappen on the evening. "We'll find out tomorrow. I think Max has looked very quick in the long runs this weekend and clearly very quick over one lap. But, yeah, let's see how much pace will be a factor tomorrow.”
