Verstappen had seemed in management by the opening segments, with the Dutchman the one driver to get by to Q3 with two units of recent softs remaining.
He used his first to steer with a 1m22.945s, albeit with a lurid slide out of the ultimate nook, with Norris trailing by 0.004s at this stage.
On the ultimate runs, Verstappen ran final of the pack, however didn’t enhance, because the added grip punch of the brand new softs acquired McLaren again to the pacesetting place it had established in FP1 and FP2.
Norris then got here by to edge his team-mate by 0.21s with the quickest time within the remaining sector, with Piastri’s Q3 look beginning with him quickly shedding his first run time as he flirted with the observe limits exiting Flip 1.
In Q2, Leclerc seemed to have progressed because the quickest runner, with earlier phase chief Verstappen even quickly out of his automobile within the pits, however the Ferrari driver slipped fractionally past observe limits at Flip 1 and so misplaced his 1m22.985s private finest.
Not like Purple Bull with Perez in Q1, Ferrari couldn’t get Leclerc’s time reinstated as a patch of blue kerb paint was seen as he went deep by the left-hander and his fall to 14th means he’ll begin from the final row of the grid along with his battery-change grid penalty.
In Q1, Hamilton was the large shock faller – the Mercedes driver down in the direction of the drop zone after the intial runs and with an enormous observe enchancment issue evidenced from his former team-mate Bottas leaping from sixteenth to second within the phase ultimately topped by Leclerc.
On the finish of Hamilton’s remaining flier, the place he was trailing Magnussen throughout, the Haas of Magnussen reducing Flip 14 and knocking a inexperienced bollard into his path meant the seven-time world champion needed to do the ultimate corners along with his automobile’s dealing with compromised.
Provisional beginning grid:
Images from Abu Dhabi GP Observe & Qualifying
On this article
Alex Kalinauckas
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