Max Verstappen made light of earlier set-up problems on Saturday by blitzing to pole position for Red Bull in an eventful qualifying session for this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. 

The three-time world champion clocked a best lap in one minute and 23.445 seconds to outpace nearest rival Charles Leclerc of Ferrari by a tenth of a second ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. 

It secured Verstappen’s 12th pole of the season, his fourth in succession in Abu Dhabi and the 33rd of his career, drawing him level with 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell in the record books. 

George Russell was fourth for Mercedes ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda of Alpha Tauri after Carlos Sainz failed to make it out of Q1 in the second Ferrari and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was unable to progress from Q2 in his Mercedes. 

Read full story on sport.timesofmalta.com

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.