The feeling after free practice was that Hamilton and Mercedes had better one lap speed, while in race pace they seemed to be more even or even a step behind Verstappen and Red Bull.
To try to counteract this, the Milton Keynes team did teamwork in the final Q3, putting Sergio Pérez in a strategic position to give Verstappen slipstream on the straight leading to Turn 9.
Team play went off without a hitch for Red Bull as Verstappen managed to set a time of 1m22.109s , by far the fastest lap of the weekend, and ended up snatching pole from Hamilton by 0.371s .
“It is, of course, an incredible feeling. I think we have improved the car again for qualifying, as this weekend has been a bit up and down,” began Max Verstappen in his analysis after qualifying in the park. closed.
“I’m very happy. This is of course what we wanted. But it’s never easy, especially with their (Mercedes) performance in the last few races, but yeah now, I’m just waiting for tomorrow to come, because that’s the most important,” he added.
Initially, Verstappen fitted medium tires in Q2 to start the race on that compound, something Mercedes also did with Hamilton , but the Red Bull driver had a lockup on his second fastest lap attempt that ruined his tyres. That led Red Bull to make the decision to put him on soft for his final Q2 attempt and tomorrow he will have a different strategy to his rival.
“I felt good on both tyres,” said Verstappen. “Now in the afternoon (the race will be at the same time) it’s a bit colder. So it should be a bit easier for the soft tyres. But we’ll see tomorrow. It’s very important to have a good start and from there we’ll try do our race to the fullest and we’ll see where we end up.
Verstappen and Hamilton entered the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with equal points in points and tensions are mounting as the weekend’s defining moment approaches at the Yas Marina circuit. But it doesn’t seem to be like that for the Dutch driver, who claimed to have calmly faced this last session.
“I was very relaxed before qualifying. I know that I always do my best. And I know that my team always gives me the best possible car. That’s what we’ve done all year. And it worked really well today too.” , finished a Verstappen that tomorrow will start first with Hamilton right next to him in second position.
Max Verstappen on F1 Abu Dhabi GP 2021 Qualifying:
