Max Verstappen will start on pole position for the 2025 F1 Abu Dhabi GP, boosting his chances of claiming a fifth consecutive world title with Red Bull and pulling off F1’s biggest ever comeback in terms of championship points.
The four-time world champion set the two fastest times of the qualifying hour, cementing what was in the end a dominant pole position by two tenths over McLaren title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, in what was otherwise a very closely contested qualifying session for the Abu Dhabi GP
Changes to car set-up after FP3 proved helpful
Despite close headline times in the final practice session, all was not well on Verstappen’s side of the garage, as he suffered from issues ranging from chronic understeer to a snappy rear in several occasions.
He praised his Red Bull team for putting out a car that was more “together” ahead of the all-important qualifying session in Abu Dhabi, which allowed him to take the top spot for the final qualifying session of the 2025 F1 season:
“Just being able to put it all together,” he said when asked what difficulties he faced in the weekend up until qualifying. “Sometimes that’s oversteer, sometimes that understeer. It just depends also a little bit on the corner layout.
“And every session, you try different things. Some bits are positive, some bits are negative. And then over the practice sessions, you make a call on what you want for qualifying. That’s what we did.
“And finally, basically, most of the corners came together.
“I think, in general, qualifying felt a little bit more together compared to the other sessions, where I still felt like we were lacking a bit,” he said. “But then with the final changes that we made going into the night, it seemed to help us a bit.”
“Very nice” from Tsunoda to give up first Q3 run to help with a tow
Red Bull is no stranger to playing the ultimate team game when it needs to, and in what seemed a repeat of the 2021 qualifying session, Verstappen’s team-mate was used to help the Dutchman with a crucial tow in the first runs of Q3 at the F1 Abu Dhabi GP.
Yuki Tsunoda abandoned his first flying lap and was ordered by his engineer to give Verstappen a “really good” tow up towards turn nine, which the Japanese driver duly obeyed, helping the Dutchman take the top spot by over half-a-second after the first runs.
“It was a good lap already, with a bit of help of course from Yuki [Tsunoda] with a tow,” he added. “So that was very nice [from him] to give up one of his runs.
“In the second lap, I was not sure if I was going to improve, just because of the tow that I got [in the previous lap].
“But again, I just found a little bit more laptime in the corners, so I’m happy with that.
“I’m happy with the one lap performance at the end in qualifying, but now of course the big question mark is if we can keep that up in the race.”
“Similar” kind of pressure as to that of the 2021 finale in qualifying
Verstappen admitted there was “quite a bit” of pressure heading into this qualifying session, and a “similar” feeling as to that of the final qualifying of 2021, at the same track. At that stage, he delivered a crucial lap just when he needed to snatch pole away from his season-long title rival Lewis Hamilton.
This time around, he and the team turned around what seemed to be a difficult, off-pace car on Friday to an assured pole position.
“It felt really good. There was quite a bit of pressure, of course, of trying to do the best we could,” he admitted. “It felt probably similar to like 2021 qualifying, [when] I had a really good qualifying here as well.
“But I like that. I mean, probably when the pressure is high, is when you really need to perform, [and] normally I perform, because I enjoy that kind of aspect.
“It was nice. I mean, you always try to, of course, do the best possible qualy lap. Sometimes it works out a bit better than other times.I think this time it worked out pretty well.”
“All out, nothing to lose” approach to the race start for Max Verstappen at the F1 Abu Dhabi GP
The reigning champion knows he will need some form of “luck or help” in order to retain his crown for a fifth consecutive season.
And that’s precisely why he admitted to be approaching the race, and especially the start, with an “all out, nothing to lose” approach to the first few corners.
“Of course, I’m excited, [and] I’m looking forward to it. I’m going to try to win that race.
“But of course, with that, I still need a little bit of help, or luck to win the championship. But we’ll see how that goes tomorrow.
“All out. I have nothing to lose,” he said of his approach into the first few corners. “So for me, of course, I’m going to try to win the race. I’m going to defend. If I need to attack, I’ll attack.
“Because what can happen? You’re either second or third. Or you win, [and] that would be fantastic.”
“The best I’ve felt” – Verstappen’s summary of his long-run pace in practice at the F1 Abu Dhabi GP
When asked if he’s got the pace to stay ahead of the two McLarens and have a real shot at winning the race on Sunday, Verstappen explained his long-run pace in FP2 was “the best” he’s felt so far, as the team worked extra hard to ensure good pace over a longer stint:
“I would hope so,” he said when quizzed if he has the necessary long-run pace in the car. “I actually did a lot of laps in the long runs [in practice], so we tried to prepare in the best way possible.
“It’s probably the best I’ve felt, but of course let’s see if that’s good enough.”
“Completely different” – Why Verstappen is cautious of trying Hamilton’s 2016 slow down tactics at the F1 Abu Dhabi GP
Lewis Hamilton’s tactics at the 2016 Abu Dhabi GP became a famous talking point during that year’s title decider, when he backed his team-mate Nico Rosberg into the pack, in an attempt to get him to finish fourth or lower, to secure what would’ve been his fourth title at the time. That didn’t work, but it was a good and clever try from the now seven-time champion.
The situation is much the same for Max Verstappen this time around, as he needs Norris to finish off the podium to have any hopes of retaining his crown.
When asked if he’s thinking of doing something similar on Sunday, Verstappen remained skeptical about it, citing that not only has the track changed a lot since the then, the cars and tyres are much less sensitive, which would make his life harder in trying to keep Norris behind:
“It was also a different layout. I feel like now you get towed around a lot more around the lap.
“So, it’s probably not as easy to do something like that. Cars are also, of course, completely different to back then.
“I felt like it was a lot easier back then to back it up, because the tyres would overheat a lot when you would get close,” he explained. “I remember even in 2016, in some qualifying laps, you couldn’t go flat out in sector one to keep the tyres alive in the last sector, which actually was here, for example.
“So, yeah, it’s very different, very different times.I hope it’s not straightforward, the race, but hopefully that’s not because of me.”
