McLaren's Lando Norris claimed pole position for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, aheaf of teammate Oscar Piastri as McLaren look set to win the Constructors' Championship.
(photo: F1)
Norris and Piastri both tightened their teams' grasp on the 2024 championship during the qualifying session for the final race of the season, at the Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Norris, claiming yet another pole position, earned a time of 1m 22.595s, enough to put him a mere 0.2s ahead of teammate Piastri, who starts in P2 and locks out the front row.
The main take away after Saturdays' session, is this front row McLaren lock out sees them move one step closer to the 2024 Constructors' championship, as Ferrari failed to make up any major ground on the Woking based team.
Carlos Sainz, in his final race weekend in red-clad race trim, done what he could to ensure he starts P3, behind both McLaren drivers, while teammate Charles Leclerc, set to be hit with a grid penalty, only managed to go 14th fastest, bowing out in Q2 as the Monegasque driver had a lap time deleted for track limit violations.
(photo: F1)
Ferrari's qualifying session is not what the they would have hoped for, but with a full race yet to come on Sunday, the Maranello team will be sure to give everything they have , in order to mount one final challenge on McLaren in hopes of causing some last minute upset for the Papaya team.
Nico Hulkenberg put his Haas on provisional pole position late into Q3, however both McLaren and Ferrari were able to knock the German off his pedestal, meaning he starts fourth on the grid, a highly impressive result nonetheless. World champion Max Verstappen was only able to place his Red Bull in fifth, a result which is sure to have little to no effect on the Dutch driver, his fourth driver championship already in the bag.
Mercedes did not seem to show any real pace during the session, with George Russell claiming only seventh ahead of Sunday's race. Lewis Hamilton, seven time World Champion, in his final qualifying session at the Silver Arrows, suffered the most once again, and will start down in P18 on raceday.
Hamilton will sure look to give his all, as the British driver will replace Sainz at Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season.
(photo: F1)
With the starting grid now set in stone for Sundays' race, here is how the teams line up for the last time in 2024:
Lando Norris (1.22.595s)
Oscar Piastri (1.22.804s)
Carlos Sainz (1.22.824s)
Nico Hulkenberg (1.22.886s)
Max Verstappen (1.22.945s)
Pierre Gasly (1.22.984s)
George Russell (1.23.132s)
Fernando Alonso (1.23.196s)
Valterri Bottas (1.23.204s)
Sergio Perez (1.23.264s)
Yuki Tsunoda (1.23.419s)
Liam Lawson (1.23.472s)
Lance Stroll (1.23.784s)
Charles Leclerc (1.23.833s)
Kevin Magnussen (1.23.877s)
Alexander Albon (1.23.821s)
Zhou Guanyu (1.23.880s)
Lewis Hamilton (1.23.887s)
Franco Colapinto (1.23.912s)
Jack Doohan (1.24.105s)
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