Piastri only third as Verstappen takes pole in finale
Ian Chadband |
Oscar Piastri’s dream of becoming world F1 champion has taken another potentially crushing blow after he could only finish third behind his two title rivals in qualifying at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Australian hope, already a long shot outsider in third place in the title race, will now start Sunday’s season-ender at Yas Marina on the second row, with Max Verstappen on pole and championship leader Lando Norris alongside the Dutch ace on the front row.
Red Bull’s four-time champion Verstappen, 12 points behind Norris in the standings but four ahead of Piastri, demonstrated on Saturday just why he could yet spoil the McLaren party as he delivered another of his special flying qualifying laps in 1min 22.207sec.
That was 0.201sec faster than Norris, who at least managed to pip his teammate Piastri by the agonisingly tight margin of 29-thousandths of a second.
That should make the Briton’s task more straightforward in Sunday’s race as Norris only needs to finish in the top three to guarantee a maiden championship title.
In their first runs in Q3, Verstappen had negotiated the 21 corners of Yas Marina 0.327sec faster than Piastri and nearly half-a-second clear of Norris.
But though the McLaren duo improved with their final laps, Norris critically leapfrogging Piastri to move on to the front row, Verstappen responded brilliantly again.
So, F1 bosses have got what they hoped for in the final race of the year — all three world championship contenders taking the leading positions for the showdown.
But Verstappen is the one who’s charging. “Let’s f****** go!” he declared jubilantly on the radio as he celebrated yet another pole after being given a nice tow for his decisive lap from his departing teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
“I am incredibly happy to be in first. That’s the only thing we can do, we can control, to maximise what we have and what we can do with the car — and we definitely did that.
“Of course I’m excited, I’m looking forward to it. I’m going to try to win that race.”
The McLaren duo sounded as if they felt they had given it their best but just didn’t have the pace to match the champ.
“We weren’t quite quick enough,” shrugged Norris. “I still want to win tomorrow and that’s going to be the goal.”
Piastri also reckoned he had not left a lot out there on the circuit. “It sets up a pretty exciting day tomorrow,” he said.
Earlier, Piastri had only finished fifth in final practice, while Norris was second and Verstappen third, behind George Russell.
Mercedes’ Russell went on to finish fourth in qualifying ahead of Charles Leclerc, whose ailing Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton suffered another dispiriting day, crashing in final practice before getting knocked out of Q1, meaning he’ll be starting from 16th on Sunday.
“Every time, mate, I am so sorry,” sighed the 40-year-old on the radio after Leclerc out-qualified him for the 19th time in 24 appearances this season.
AAP
