Technical director James Allison says Lewis Hamilton lifted the team ahead of his final race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi, where he started deep in the field after being eliminated in Q1 due to an errant bollard. Hamilton was on the back foot when he …
Technical director James Allison says Lewis Hamilton lifted the team ahead of his final race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi, where he started deep in the field after being eliminated in Q1 due to an errant bollard.
Hamilton was on the back foot when he was sent out at the end of Q1, before a loose bollard — dislodged by Kevin Magnussen as the Haas driver was trying to get out of Hamilton’s way — wedged itself under his floor. That led to Hamilton starting in 16th place, but he charged through the field to finish fourth.
“I think it would be very hard to summarize such a complex set of feelings,” Allison said. “We would of course love this whole season, let alone the last race, to be more of a fairy tale ending to a partnership that has set all the benchmarks in Formula 1.
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“It would have been fitting if we could have finished on the podium at the very least or ideally on the top step, but that was not to be. That said, I think it could not have been more well handled by Lewis and by the team. I think that owes a massive amount to the respect that there is between Lewis and the team and the huge amount of appreciation for everything we have achieved together.”
Allison says the catalyst for Hamilton’s impressive comeback was the seven-time world champion not allowing Mercedes to be downbeat ahead of the race.
“Qualifying was a difficult time for Lewis in this event with his run-in with the bollard. He was disappointed; we were even more disappointed for him,” Allison said. “And yet in the debrief afterwards when we were down in the mouth, he was telling us, ‘Look, put your chins up, we’re going to make the most of tomorrow and remember all the times when we’ve got this right together.’
“I think that is what it feels like. We have had some difficult seasons recently but over the span of this relationship no other driver-team partnership has come close to matching what we have done together and it has just been a fantastic run for all of us. We could not wish him more well than we did on that last day together.”
There was still a tinge of regret from Allison, though, as he admitted Hamilton would have had every chance of finishing on the podium in his final race for Mercedes but for the qualifying incident.
“It is possible, yes. I think he had been pretty speedy during the weekend prior, was feeling confident in the car,” Allison said. “The gaps actually between P5 and the front row were quite small and had he wiggled his way into Q2 without the untimely intervention of the bollard, then I think he would have had a strong qualifying session overall and then would have been obviously much better placed to fight in the race than eventually he was.”
Charles Leclerc admits the pain of missing out on the constructors’ championship with Ferrari outweighs the pride at his remarkable recovery drive in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Leclerc started 19th on the grid due to a power unit penalty and poor …
Charles Leclerc admits the pain of missing out on the constructors’ championship with Ferrari outweighs the pride at his remarkable recovery drive in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Leclerc started 19th on the grid due to a power unit penalty and poor qualifying, leaving Ferrari with only a remote chance of overturning a 21-point deficit to McLaren with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri starting on the front row. A dramatic opening lap saw Piastri hit by Max Verstappen and Leclerc gain 11 positions to run in the top eight, going on to finish third behind teammate Carlos Sainz as Norris held on for the victory.
“I’m really happy about the race, but the disappointment is a lot bigger,” Leclerc said. “You don’t win or lose a championship in the last race — obviously, it’s over the course of the season and after every single race and McLaren has just done a better job than us. Congratulations to them.
“But it obviously hurts when you get to the last race. You know there’s an opportunity. It was a very difficult weekend, obviously, already with the penalty on Friday. It was never going to be easy. But after such a good first lap, the hopes were high. And yeah, we just came short of our dream, which was to win the constructors’. So it hurts.”
Leclerc’s brilliant first lap including a triple overtake around the outside of Turn 6 as he quickly moved himself inside the top 10, and he says he knew he had to take risks to give Ferrari any hope of overhauling McLaren.
A magic first lap from Leclerc cut through many of his obstacles on the way to the front. Motorsport Images
“I knew I had to be very aggressive, so I knew that in lap 1, I had to take all the risks possible in order to gain as many places as possible, to then be in a good position for the rest of the race,” he said. “This I achieved, but then, unfortunately, we were just starting too far back to do anything better than what we’ve done today.
“I think we’ve done the maximum. It hurts, obviously, because the season was so close until the end. It was a hard hit on Friday when we knew we had the penalty. We still gave it all and we just came short of our goal, which is a shame. But at the end, we’ve tried everything.”
Sainz was closer to Norris throughout his final race for Ferrari but couldn’t quite keep in touch with the McLaren, and he admits his car didn’t quite have the performance to secure the win it required.
“Obviously, a bit of a bittersweet feeling in the end,” Sainz said. “P2, I think, was the maximum we could do today, given the pace of Lando in the McLaren. I gave it everything, especially the first stint. It looked like we could hang on to them. Then as soon as we put the hard tires, they just seemed to be that one or two tenths quicker per lap, like we’ve seen all weekend, and they just got a bit out of reach.
“Congratulations, first of all, to McLaren. They deserve this championship. They’ve been rock solid in the last two-thirds of the championship — they’ve been incredible. From our side. I think we can be proud of the effort and the championship we put together. It’s been a tough year, but definitely a year where we need to be proud of, and hopefully I’ll be back here soon.”
Lewis Hamilton savored his final moments with his Mercedes car after ending his spell with the team on a high with a recovery drive to fourth place in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A Q1 exit on Saturday had left Hamilton facing a tough task in the final …
Lewis Hamilton savored his final moments with his Mercedes car after ending his spell with the team on a high with a recovery drive to fourth place in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
A Q1 exit on Saturday had left Hamilton facing a tough task in the final race of the season, but he was the only driver to start on hard tires to try an alternate strategy against the rest of the field on mediums. A solid opening few laps saw him gain four positions from his 16th-place grid slot and Hamilton then produced an entertaining final stint to close in on teammate George Russell and make the move for fourth on the final lap of the race.
“[Russell] was driving great — obviously he started a lot further ahead than I did, so to catch the 14 seconds was tough,” Hamilton said. “He was putting in good laps, and so it took perfection — I had to really put together the best laps I could possibly do.
“Obviously in Vegas I was catching for a period of time and then stopped, so I was trying to make sure that I kept taking chunks out of that gap, and I only caught him right at that last lap, and I was like, ‘I’ve got to make it, it’s now or never,’ and so I just went for it.
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“I mean, every moment that I’ve got in the car this week, I’ve known that it’s one of the last. And it’s been really, really clear and really hard to let go. So I think when I stopped the car I just wanted to embrace the moment, because it’s the last time I’m going to step into a Mercedes and represent them.
“It’s been the greatest honor of my life — they’ve powered every race, every pole position, every win we’ve had together, every championship, so I think when I knelt next to it I think it was just giving thanks, to firstly thanking my own spirit for not giving up and continuing to push, thanking everyone that powered and built that car, I’m proud of everyone.”
Hamilton says the strong drive has no bearing on his outlook for 2025 at Ferrari, but that he was glad that that he got to sign off from Mercedes with such a performance.
“It’s not that I need to have confidence — I’ve always had the confidence — but definitely really nice to finish with a strong hard battle. No mistakes, solid drive.
“It’s been a really turbulent year, probably the longest year of my life, I would say, because we’ve known it from the beginning that we’re leaving, and it’s like a relationship — when you’ve told whoever the counterpart is that you’re leaving, but you’re living together for a whole year! Lots of ups and downs, emotionally, but we finished off on a high today.”
Lando Norris admits he was nervous about McLaren’s title hopes after Oscar Piastri was hit at the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, before taking the win that secured the constructors’ championship for the team. McLaren started with both drivers on …
Lando Norris admits he was nervous about McLaren’s title hopes after Oscar Piastri was hit at the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, before taking the win that secured the constructors’ championship for the team.
McLaren started with both drivers on the front row and knowing a win would guarantee the title even if Ferrari finished second and third. Such a result for the Scuderia looked unlikely with Charles Leclerc starting on the back row, but Piastri was hit by Max Verstappen at Turn 1 and Leclerc had a brilliant first lap, putting the pressure on Norris to deliver.
“I’m very, very happy, just as I’m sure everyone in the team is,” Norris said. “Today was a very special day for all of us. It was ours to lose today — and I’m sure at certain moments, people thought that it was not far away from being lost. Two Ferraris up there, and Charles did a great job to get back to the podium.
“Oscar was super unlucky — he got taken out in Turn 1 — so for a minute, my heart was like, ‘Oh God, it’s not looking as likely.’ But if I just keep my head down and keep focused, I knew I could deliver and do what I’ve got to do.
“But the bigger picture of us winning a championship for the first time in 26 years — you wouldn’t have thought that when you say the name McLaren, it feels wrong to say that they’ve not won a championship in 26 years. But for me to be part of that, for Oscar to be part of it, is something we’re incredibly proud of. And delivering that for the team has put the biggest smiles possible on everyone’s face.
“This is the biggest reward you can give back to everyone who designs the car, builds the car, gets the partners; everyone has played such a big part. So, just proud. Of course, I’m happy I finished the season this way, but I’m way more happy for the team than I am for myself.”
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Norris admits he was checking the status of the race on the screens around the track and as soon as he saw Leclerc making progress, he was aware of how tense the situation was while he also struggled to shake off Carlos Sainz in the first half of the race.
“I was watching the TV screens and I saw Charles was P8 after lap 1. So I was a little bit nervous, but I knew I just had to focus on myself, put my head down and Carlos was never far away. I think the biggest the gap was 4.2 seconds in the first 10 and that’s not a very nice gap in my opinion. It’s a bit too close for my comfort.
“So it was a tricky race and I’m sure there was probably a lot more nervous people on the pit wall and in the garage knowing what was at stake. And I got the adrenaline of the car and focused on that. For them, they’re just sitting and watching the screens and they have a lot more time to think about what can go wrong and all of that.
“A shame for Oscar. We really wanted to have a 1-2 today and finish and let McLaren be on top today as a team in a race, but also for a championship. I felt quite bad for him — it wasn’t his fault, but he’s had a great year. So we’ll all celebrate together. I certainly am and I’ll have some fun.”
Max Verstappen says it was was important for him to apologize to Oscar Piastri for hitting him at Turn 1 at the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, even if he didn’t agree with his subsequent penalty for it. The Dutchman got a good start and had …
Max Verstappen says it was was important for him to apologize to Oscar Piastri for hitting him at Turn 1 at the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, even if he didn’t agree with his subsequent penalty for it.
The Dutchman got a good start and had already overtaken Carlos Sainz when he attempted a move down the inside of Piastri under braking for the first corner. Verstappen took to the inside curb but was never fully alongside and tapped Piastri into a spin — also pirouetting 360 degrees himself — to put the McLaren driver to the back of the field.
“Launch was good and then I tried to grab the inside, and I quickly realized, once I committed to it, that the gap was closing and I wanted to try and get out of it, because I didn’t want to cause a crash with Oscar,” Verstappen said. “Unfortunately we still clipped each other, but I already apologized to Oscar. It’s not what you want to happen and especially not with him — he’s a great guy. It happened. It’s just a bit unfortunate.”
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Verstappen was given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision, one of a multiple handed out for the same infringement during the race, but suggested he was unhappy at the punishment.
“Honestly, I don’t want to talk about it. I’m just happy that the season is over,” he said. “For me, the most important thing that I had to do is just apologize to Oscar, because I have nothing to gain, nothing to lose. I went for it. It didn’t work out. And especially also for him that we both spun. It’s not nice — he’s a friend of mine, so I don’t want to have any, like, weird feelings or whatever, going into the break.
“I don’t understand anything [about penalties] anymore, but it’s fine, whatever. I’m not gonna get angry about stuff like that. It’s not worth my time. Just have a break. Like I said, the most important thing is that I apologize to Oscar, and that’s it.
“I think when you’re in that position, you’re focusing on the car ahead, you commit. How I feel it as well … when you start first or second, you never really looked behind. So I went for it, and then I realized, ’S***, he doesn’t see me there.’ So I was trying to get out of it, but then we still clipped. Of course, that is on me, but I was expecting maybe 20 seconds, 30 seconds, I don’t know, stop-and-go? It’s maybe something to talk about for next time.”
Lando Norris closed out the Formula 1 season by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at a canter to secure McLaren its first constructors’ championship since 1998. Norris got the perfect launch from pole position to establish a healthy lead over the …
Lando Norris closed out the Formula 1 season by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at a canter to secure McLaren its first constructors’ championship since 1998.
Norris got the perfect launch from pole position to establish a healthy lead over the field early, but McLaren’s comfortable grip on the title trophy momentarily slackened when teammate Oscar Piastri, starting second, was spun around by Max Verstappen into the first turn.
Verstappen had optimistically lunged for second place into the left-hander, his front-right wheel tagging Piastri’s rear left to send both cars spinning off the track. Verstappen rejoined 11th, while Piastri resumed in 20th and last.
Ferrari, meanwhile, was capitalizing on the first-lap carnage.
Carlos Sainz, starting third, threaded the needle between the spinning Piastri and Verstappen to take second, while teammate Charles Leclerc completed an epic 11-place rise on the first lap to put himself eighth and in unlikely podium contention.
The highlight of Leclerc’s barnstorming first lap was picking up four places with a single around-the-outside move into the chicane splitting the back straights. The quadruple pass was facilitated by Valtteri Bottas tagging Sergio Perez on the apex of Turn 6 just before Leclerc arrived on the scene. The Finn, facing the final grand prix of his career, tipped Perez — also possibly facing his last F1 race — into a clumsy spin.
Disaster right off the bat for Piastri and McLaren MCL38, while Verstappen and Red Bull also paid a heavy price. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
The Mexican retired almost on the spot, for which Bottas copped a 10s penalty, ensured Red Bull Racing could finish no higher than third on the constructors’ title table. It’s the first time in more than 40 years the season’s best driver has raced for the team third or lower in the championship.
Perez’s stoppage caused a virtual safety car that left Leclerc in eighth, though he was upwardly mobile immediately once racing resumed, passing his way up to a net fourth place shortly before his first pit stop and passing Pierre Gasly for third on the following laps.
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Ferrari could overhaul McLaren’s 21-point advantage with both cars on the podium, but one of them had to win the race. So long as Norris controlled the top spot, McLaren’s lead was safe.
Hoping to unseat the Briton, Ferrari rolled the dice with Sainz at his sole pit stop, hauling him in on lap 25. He had been trailing Norris by around 3.5s before his stop, but a ferocious out-lap ensured he was within 2s of the Briton after McLaren followed suit on the following lap.
With his tires already up to temperate, the Spaniard briefly threatened to battle for the lead, potentially turning the title race on its head. But after only a few more laps Norris was able to get heat into his rubber to begin re-establishing his original buffer. The growth was fractional but unstoppable, and by the end of the race it had ballooned to 5.8s. In taking the checkered flag, Norris secured his team its first constructors’ title in more than a quarter of a century.
“It feels incredible,” Norris said. “Not for myself but for the whole team. The team have done an amazing job this year to come from where we were at the beginning.
“I’m so proud of everyone. It’s been a lovely journey, and to end the season like this is perfect. For us to win a constructors’ [championship] after 26 years is pretty special.”
Sainz finished a strong but ultimately ineffectual second in his final grand prix for Ferrari, unable to go with Norris for most of the race.
“Obviously a bit of a bittersweet feeling,” he said. “In the end I think it was the maximum we could do today given the pace of Lando and McLaren. I gave it everything.
“I think we can be proud of the effort and the championship we put together. It’s been a tough year, but definitely a year we need to be proud of.”
Leclerc completed a mammoth 16-place recovery from 19th on the grid to third at the flag. His rise was entirely self-made, with 11 places gained on the first lap alone and without the benefit of a safety car or other significant interruption to bunch up the field to his benefit.
“I knew I had to be very aggressive,” he said. “I knew that in lap 1 I had to take all the risks possible in order to gain as many places as possible to then be in a good position for the rest of the race. This was achieved, but then unfortunately we were just starting too far back to do anything better than what we’ve done today.
“We’ve just come short of our goal, which is a shame, but at the end we’ve tried everything.”
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth to cap off a brilliant recovery from 16th on the grid. The seven-time champion, who will depart Mercedes at the end of the year, gained four places on the first lap and was feisty throughout the race to rise to fifth behind teammate George Russell with two laps remaining. A gutsy around-the-outside move at the parabolic Turn 9 sealed his 12-place recovery, leading Russell home for a Mercedes four-five.
Verstappen finished sixth after serving a 10s penalty for punting Piastri off the track on the first lap.
Gasly finished seventh for Alpine ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, securing the French-owned squad sixth in the constructors’ championship ahead of Haas.
Fernando Alonso ground out ninth as the highest-placed driver to finish the race with two stops, while Oscar Piastri completed the top 10, also with two stops, after serving a 10s penalty of his own for rear-ending Franco Colapinto shortly after the virtual safety car period ended. It forced Colapinto into a pit stop with a rear puncture, and the Argentine later retired with a suspected power unit issue.
Alex Albon finished 11th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, Lance Stroll, debutant Jack Doohan and Kevin Magnussen, who set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap as a parting gift from his Haas team.
Liam Lawson was classified 17th after stopping on track three laps from home, his car smoking along the back straight.
Lando Norris wants to secure the constructors’ title with a victory for McLaren, and says he is ready for a battle with former teammate Carlos Sainz in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Sainz is set to start his final race for Ferrari before being replaced …
Lando Norris wants to secure the constructors’ title with a victory for McLaren, and says he is ready for a battle with former teammate Carlos Sainz in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Sainz is set to start his final race for Ferrari before being replaced by Lewis Hamilton, and is trying to help it outscore McLaren by 21 points to win the constructors’ championship. Norris will start from pole ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri after McLaren locked out the front row, and the British driver says he’s expecting a fired-up Sainz on Sunday but won’t back down from a fight for victory.
“We’ve got to beat Ferrari,” Norris said. “That’s the aim, but we want to do it in style and we want to win.
“But we’re here to win everywhere it’s possible, and tomorrow we’re going to have a good chance, at least with one of our cars, and we’ll be giving it everything we’ve got, knowing in the back of our minds what we really have to do to achieve our big goals.
“I feel like Zak [Brown, McLaren Racing CEO] is probably more nervous that we’re first and second than if we were not, so… It gives us good knowledge that the car is great, of course. I think we’ve both been driving well this weekend, and we knew the pressure was on, from ourselves. So we’ve both performed well. We’ve both got everything out of the car.
“But this is a long race, and many things can happen. So we’re definitely not going to get ahead of ourselves. We know we have a little bit of a gap in terms of positions. We’re in a much more fortunate position than what Ferrari are. [Sainz] is going to be putting up a good fight for his final race with Ferrari. You know, he’s going to want to prove his point. And I’m excited to battle if that’s the case.”
It was Max Verstappen who was on provisional pole position after the first Q3 runs and Norris admits McLaren faced a tougher test than he’d been expecting once qualifying started.
“Quali was a bit of a struggle, honestly. We just expected, probably, to be a little bit better than what we were,” he said. “The weekend so far has been quite straightforward from our side. It just seems like everyone caught up a lot come qualifying, and we had to start pushing a lot more.
“It was a good lap. It was not the cleanest, but sometimes when you’re close enough to the edge and it’s just a little bit untidy, sometimes it’s actually quite a nice place to be. So I had a couple snaps, and I had a big snap into [Turn] 9, the high speed. I just made a mistake. That hurt me a touch, but otherwise it was a nice lap.
“I put the rest of it together pretty well. Just not an easy circuit to do. We had a bit to gain in quali, because Max was looking a little bit quicker than us through the most part of it. So I knew I had to pull something out.”
Charles Leclerc views his back row starting position due to a grid penalty and a track limits violation as a motivating factor for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Ferrari had to give Leclerc a new energy store after Friday, resulting in a 10-place grid …
Charles Leclerc views his back row starting position due to a grid penalty and a track limits violation as a motivating factor for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Ferrari had to give Leclerc a new energy store after Friday, resulting in a 10-place grid penalty that ensured the best starting position he could secure was 11th on the grid. Leclerc looked competitive in qualifying but then had his best Q2 lap deleted for exceeding track limits, resulting in him dropping out early and starting on the back row.
“[I feel] not so good after a qualifying like that,” Leclerc said. “We were a little bit better. It’s true that I don’t think we would have managed to beat the McLarens — they seemed too strong — but we could have been fourth. It was either P15 or P20 and P15 is better than P20. But if I get my lap time deleted it means we start from P20.
“We are not making our life any easier. However, it motivates me to do something very special tomorrow. My goal remains the same: it’s to win the constructors’ championship. And I still believe in it as much as I did yesterday, even though on paper obviously it’s going to be hard.”
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Admitting the track limits violation was simply his own mistake, Leclerc says he is still believing Ferrari can overturn a 21-point deficit against McLaren to win the constructors’ title, despite Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locking out the front row.
“It’s very difficult [to judge Turn 1] — it’s obviously very difficult,” he said. “But it’s very difficult for everybody and I was on the wrong side of things in Q2 so I can only blame myself.
“The race pace was OK, but McLaren seemed to be a lot stronger. We’ve changed the car quite a bit since FP3. I think we went in the right direction. If anything our tire degradation is better than others, so I would expect to be in a better position.
“I believe in miracles. It makes our life very difficult, that’s for sure. But with the 10-place grid penalty it was always going to be difficult. But I see an opportunity to do something very special and I’ll do my best to do it. I’ll believe in it until the very last lap. Anything can happen.”
Lewis Hamilton was in a philosophical mood after his Q1 exit at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with his final qualifying session for Mercedes being hampered by a bollard. Mercedes had to warn Hamilton that he might struggle to start his final lap in the …
Lewis Hamilton was in a philosophical mood after his Q1 exit at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with his final qualifying session for Mercedes being hampered by a bollard.
Mercedes had to warn Hamilton that he might struggle to start his final lap in the first part of qualifying because of traffic and the time left on the clock, but he just managed to cross the line in time. Then as he rounded Turn 14, Kevin Magnussen cut the corner to keep out of his way but the Haas driver inadvertently knocked loose a bollard that lodged itself under Hamilton’s car, hampering his final few laps as he dropped out in 18th place.
“You couldn’t make it up, you really couldn’t, but it is what it is,” he told the BBC. “We gave it everything, I gave it everything, the car was in a good place. Every practice session went well, I was ahead of my teammate all weekend but when we got to qualifying I think as a team we didn’t perform in terms of the timing.
“I was the last car on track and ran out of time, ultimately, and then I got the bollard at the end which went under the car and I lost all downforce so it couldn’t have gone worse really.”
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Despite the disappointment, Hamilton says the car has been strong and will give him a chance of trying to fight back into the points on Saturday.
“Nah, I don’t feel the pain of [it being a kick] in the teeth, as such. I think for me, I’ve just been very present, been enjoying every moment, I’ve got the car in a really good place,” he said. “The setup changes we’ve been making, the car has been completely different to the last five races this weekend — it’s been feeling really great. So it is unfortunate, but…
“The pace was decent. It’s not going to be easy to overtake tomorrow, but I work on strategy now and instead of fighting for the podium, we’ll see how far — if I can get into the top 10, that would be amazing.”
Team principal Toto Wolff also then took it upon himself to say sorry to Hamilton for the way Mercedes executed qualifying, with the seven-time world champion set to start 16th once grid penalties are applied.
“I just need to apologize to Lewis,” he told Sky Sports. “Also to everyone in the team that worked so hard in making it a great end for him. He was the quicker guy with the setup we chose on the car to experiment for next year. We totally let him down.
“Idiotic mistake of not going earlier. Inexcusable, inexcusable. I’ve rarely been so down about what has happened. Maybe it summarizes the last races we’ve had with him but this is the worst part of it, because it was just idiotic.
“I think we were lucky that both of them wrestled their way through the other traffic. Maybe without the bollard it would have worked. You don’t risk so much in a Q1 where we easily had the pace to make it out there. Our most valuable racing driver ever, the most valuable greatest driver of this sport, gets out in Q1 because we make a mistake. It doesn’t ruin the legacy we had with him but I can only say sorry to him.”
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have locked out the front row at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to keep McLaren on track to claim its first Formula 1 constructors’ championship since 1998. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz qualified third, but the Italian team’s …
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have locked out the front row at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to keep McLaren on track to claim its first Formula 1 constructors’ championship since 1998.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz qualified third, but the Italian team’s hopes of overturning its 21-point deficit to McLaren took a considerable blow when Charles Leclerc was knocked out of Q2 after having a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits. He will start a disastrous 19th after serving a power unity penalty for taking on a new hybrid battery.
Leclerc won’t be alone among the front-runners at the back of the grid, with Lewis Hamilton set to start 16th after running over a bollard on his final lap of Q1.
The battle for pole position came down to the McLaren drivers and Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull Racing car came good in Q2, helping the Dutchman to provisional pole after the first laps of Q3. But Verstappen’s advantage — 0.004s over Norris and 0.04s over Piastri — was an illusion. Whereas his time had been set on fresh soft tires, the McLaren drivers’ opening volleys — and Sainz’s first effort, good enough for fourth — were on used rubber. With all drivers back on fresh tires, there was no real competition.
Norris improved by almost 0.4s to rocket to top spot, besting teammate Piastri by 0.209s to take his eighth pole of the season, equaling Verstappen’s 2024 haul.
With Ferrari needing an almost perfect result to have any hope of erasing McLaren’s advantage, the emphatic qualifying result puts the team in a powerful position heading into Sunday.
“A perfect day for us,” Norris said. “We’ve been very quick all weekend, and we’re pleased with the one-two. My lap in the end was strong. That’s just how we wanted to end today.
“We’ve got to beat Ferrari, that’s the aim, but we want to do it in style, and we want to win — I want to win.
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Piastri couldn’t find the same gains on fresh rubber, improving by only 0.15s, but the Australian was pleased to be part of an important McLaren front-row lockout.
“I think we took a while to find our feet in qualifying, but we got there in the end,” he said. “A great result for the team. I’m happy with that.
“My last lap, I wish I could’ve had it again, but that’s OK. P2 is still a good spot. Obviously for the team first and second is the dream, so let’s keep it going for tomorrow.”
Sainz was Ferrari’s lone top-10 representative and 0.229s off pole but was pleased with the Italian team’s progress from Friday and vowed to push to the checkered flag in pursuit of the title.
“I think McLaren have shown all weekend that they’re a bit of a step ahead compared to everyone, really, and we’re just 0.2s or 0.3s off,” he said. “But still, a race to do tomorrow and we will give it everything to see if we can win that race and give ourselves the best chance.”
Nico Hulkenberg qualified a sensational fourth for Haas after briefly having taken provisional pole at the beginning of the final runs of Q3. It puts the American team in a strong position to overturn Alpine’s five-point advantage for sixth in the constructors’ standings. The German, however, will face the stewards after the session for overtaking in the pit exit, contrary to the race director’s notes.
Verstappen bottomed out in fifth after failing to improve with his second lap, ending up 0.35s off the pace. Pierre Gasly was sixth for Alpine and only 0.039s further back.
George Russell was a massive 0.537s off the pace on a difficult night for Mercedes, beating Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas — in his and Sauber’s first Q3 appearance since April’s Chinese Grand Prix — and Sergio Perez to complete the top 10.
RB teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson will start 11th and 12th ahead of Lance Stroll in 13th.
Leclerc was left in a crestfallen 14th after exceeding track limits at Turn 1 with his final Q2 lap, which had been the fastest of the segment before being expunged by the stewards.
Kevin Magnussen qualified 15th but will inherit a place from the penalized Leclerc. The Dane will start ahead of Zhou Guanyu, who was 17th fastest, and Hamilton after his bollard-induced Q1 exit.
F1’s most prolific qualifier had already started his lap imperfectly, compromising his preparation for having needed to rush to the start line, but his middle sector was at least a personal best that had him on a trajectory to sneak into Q2.
But Hamilton’s work was undone at Turn 14, where Magnussen knocked an apex bollard onto the track while trying to make himself scarce ahead of the fast-moving Mercedes. Hamilton had no time to react, collecting the bollard underneath his front wing.
It cost him 0.263s in the final sector relative to his personal best, locking him into 18th in the order and his third Q1 knockout in the last six races, but the Briton took responsibility for leaving himself vulnerable in the first place.
“Messed that up big time, guys,” he said. “That was bad, man. Jesus.”
Jack Doohan — who was slowest in his first F1 qualifying session — will start 17th ahead of Alex Albon, who was 16th fastest but must serve a gearbox penalty so will start 18th. Leclerc — who was penalized to 19th for changing his hybrid battery — and Franco Colapinto, who was 19th fastest but will drop to last on the grid, also with a gearbox penalty – complete the field.
