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2020 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying results, full grid lineup

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will start the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from pole position for the final round of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship season, after beating the Mercedes duo to P1 in a thrilling Q3 session.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, is congratulated by his team

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, is congratulated by his team

motosport.com

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton returned for this weekend after missing the Sakhir GP due to testing positive for Covid-19 and looked to be embroiled in a battle for pole with Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas – but Verstappen crashed their party with an epic Q3 lap.

In the top-10 shootout, Hamilton set the bar on the first run at 1m35.550s but Bottas eclipsed that with 1m35.415s, and Verstappen pushed Hamilton down to third by 0.031s.

Hamilton unleashed a 1m35.332s on the second run, but Bottas beat him with a 1m35.271s, before Verstappen crossed the line with a session-topping 1m35.246s. It was his first pole since Brazil 2019.

Lando Norris (McLaren) was best of the rest, ahead of Alex Albon (Red Bull), Carlos Sainz (McLaren), Daniil Kvyat (AlphaTauri), Lance Stroll (Racing Point), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri).

Leclerc has a three-place grid penalty for causing a Lap 1 crash in last weekend’s Sakhir GP.

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In Qualifying 2, Mercedes ran the medium tyres with Hamilton setting the pace at 1m35.466, 0.061s ahead of Bottas. Verstappen was third fastest, also on mediums, ahead of Albon, who led the soft users.

Knocked out at this point were the Renaults of Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) and Sergio Perez, who just used this session to prep some tyres for the race due to a grid penalty.

In Qualifying 1, Bottas set the pace 1m35.699s, initially 0.098s ahead of Hamilton, who ran wide at the penultimate corner and had his time deleted as a result. That meant Hamilton had to run again, after his floor was checked for damage, and he set the fastest time on a second set of soft tyres 1m35.528s.

Falling at the first hurdle were Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo, the Haas of Kevin Magnussen, Williams’s George Russell, the second Haas of Pietro Fittipaldi and Nicholas Latifi (who spun his Williams on his final run).

Both Perez and Magnussen will start from the back of the grid due to engine change-related grid penalties.

F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying grid results

Cla Driver Chassis Engine Time Gap km/h
1 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull Honda 1'35.246
2 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes Mercedes 1'35.271 0.025
3 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes Mercedes 1'35.332 0.086
4 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren Renault 1'35.497 0.251
5 Thailand Alex Albon
Red Bull Honda 1'35.571 0.325
6 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
McLaren Renault 1'35.815 0.569
7 Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat
AlphaTauri Honda 1'35.963 0.717
8 Canada Lance Stroll
Racing Point Mercedes 1'36.046 0.800
9 France Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri Honda 1'36.242 0.996
10 France Esteban Ocon
Renault Renault 1'36.359 1.113
11 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
Renault Renault 1'36.406 1.160
12 Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari Ferrari 1'36.065 0.819
13 Germany Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari Ferrari 1'36.631 1.385
14 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 1'38.248 3.002
15 Finland Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 1'37.555 2.309
16 United Kingdom George Russell
Williams Mercedes 1'38.045 2.799
17 Brazil Pietro Fittipaldi
Haas Ferrari 1'38.173 2.927
18 Canada Nicholas Latifi
Williams Mercedes 1'38.443 3.197
19 Denmark Kevin Magnussen
Haas Ferrari 1'37.863 2.617
20 Mexico Sergio Perez
Racing Point Mercedes

F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying Q3 results

Cla Driver Chassis Engine Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull Honda 19 1'35.246 209.923
2 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes Mercedes 18 1'35.271 0.025 0.025 209.868
3 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes Mercedes 20 1'35.332 0.086 0.061 209.734
4 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren Renault 17 1'35.497 0.251 0.165 209.372
5 Thailand Alex Albon
Red Bull Honda 15 1'35.571 0.325 0.074 209.209
6 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
McLaren Renault 14 1'35.815 0.569 0.244 208.677
7 Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat
AlphaTauri Honda 20 1'35.963 0.717 0.148 208.355
8 Canada Lance Stroll
Racing Point Mercedes 15 1'36.046 0.800 0.083 208.175
9 Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari Ferrari 20 1'36.065 0.819 0.019 208.134
10 France Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri Honda 20 1'36.242 0.996 0.177 207.751

F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying Q2 results

Cla Driver Chassis Engine Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes Mercedes 6 1'35.466 209.440
2 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes Mercedes 6 1'35.527 0.061 0.061 209.306
3 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull Honda 7 1'35.641 0.175 0.114 209.056
4 Thailand Alex Albon
Red Bull Honda 6 1'35.654 0.188 0.013 209.028
5 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren Renault 5 1'35.849 0.383 0.195 208.603
6 Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari Ferrari 6 1'35.932 0.466 0.083 208.422
7 Canada Lance Stroll
Racing Point Mercedes 6 1'36.143 0.677 0.211 207.965
8 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
McLaren Renault 5 1'36.192 0.726 0.049 207.859
9 Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat
AlphaTauri Honda 6 1'36.214 0.748 0.022 207.811
10 France Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri Honda 6 1'36.282 0.816 0.068 207.664
11 France Esteban Ocon
Renault Renault 6 1'36.359 0.893 0.077 207.499
12 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
Renault Renault 6 1'36.406 0.940 0.047 207.397
13 Germany Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari Ferrari 6 1'36.631 1.165 0.225 206.914
14 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 6 1'38.248 2.782 1.617 203.509
15 Mexico Sergio Perez
Racing Point Mercedes 1

F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying Q1 results

Cla Driver Chassis Engine Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes Mercedes 8 1'35.528 209.304
2 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes Mercedes 6 1'35.699 0.171 0.171 208.930
3 Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari Ferrari 8 1'35.881 0.353 0.182 208.533
4 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull Honda 6 1'35.993 0.465 0.112 208.290
5 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren Renault 6 1'36.016 0.488 0.023 208.240
6 Mexico Sergio Perez
Racing Point Mercedes 3 1'36.034 0.506 0.018 208.201
7 Thailand Alex Albon
Red Bull Honda 3 1'36.106 0.578 0.072 208.045
8 Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat
AlphaTauri Honda 8 1'36.459 0.931 0.353 207.283
9 Canada Lance Stroll
Racing Point Mercedes 3 1'36.502 0.974 0.043 207.191
10 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
McLaren Renault 3 1'36.517 0.989 0.015 207.159
11 France Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri Honda 8 1'36.545 1.017 0.028 207.099
12 Germany Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari Ferrari 6 1'36.655 1.127 0.110 206.863
13 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
Renault Renault 3 1'36.704 1.176 0.049 206.758
14 France Esteban Ocon
Renault Renault 6 1'36.783 1.255 0.079 206.590
15 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 6 1'37.075 1.547 0.292 205.968
16 Finland Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 6 1'37.555 2.027 0.480 204.955
17 Denmark Kevin Magnussen
Haas Ferrari 9 1'37.863 2.335 0.308 204.310
18 United Kingdom George Russell
Williams Mercedes 8 1'38.045 2.517 0.182 203.930
19 Brazil Pietro Fittipaldi
Haas Ferrari 9 1'38.173 2.645 0.128 203.664
20 Canada Nicholas Latifi
Williams Mercedes 7 1'38.443 2.915 0.270 203.106

F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying as it happened

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