Let’s see how the drivers faired in the last qualifying session of the season.
Q1
In Qualifying 1: Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas, Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi all took part in their final qualifying session of the season. After his pole position in Brazil, Kevin couldn’t match that and he ended up missing out on a spot in Q2 by just half a tenth. Pierre Gasly’s qualifying session today pretty much summed up his entire final season with the Alpha Tauri team. Just 1 more session Pierre! Valtteri Bottas had an absolute stinker in Qualifying which sees him line up in P18. His fastest time in Q1 was 3 tenths slower than his teammate. Williams once again locked out the back row of the grid as Alex Albon came in ahead of Nicholas Latifi. Being just 26 thousandths of a second behind his teammate was a good effort from Nicholas in his final ever qualifying session in Formula 1. Max Verstappen topped Q1 over his teammate by 2/3 of a tenth.
Q2
In Qualifying 2: Fernando Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda, Mick Schumacher, Lance Stroll and Zhou Guanyu all failed to make it into the last top 10 shootout of the year. Fernando struggled a lot in Q1 and despite finding pretty much 7 tenths, he still wasn’t able to make it into the top 10. He will start there in the race though. Yuki Tsunoda did a good job to qualify in 12th, he clearly likes it here and Mick Schumacher came in 13th place in his last Formula 1 qualifying session for the time being. A solid job from Schumacher. Lance Stroll qualified in 14th and it’s strange because I watched the lap on board and it looked pretty good. Zhou Guanyu came in in 15th place, that Alfa Romeo is definitely struggling at the moment. Sergio Perez was fastest in Q2 by just under a tenth of a second to his championship rival Charles Leclerc.
Q3
For the 8th and final time in 2022, Max Verstappen is on pole position. The Double World Champion pulled out a mega 1:23.824 to take pole position by over 2 tenths. Red Bull managed to lock out the front row of the grid as Sergio Perez came in second ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Mercedes then continued the 2 by 2 trend as Lewis Hamilton managed to outqualify his teammate George Russell by just 3 thousandths of a second. It was a tough day for Mercedes who were nearly 7 tenths of Pole. Lando Norris pulled out another great lap to take P7 whilst Alpine’s Esteban Ocon came in in 8th. The 4th most successful Formula 1 qualifier Sebastian Vettel managed to get his Aston Martin into P9 to remind everyone just how quick he is on a Saturday whilst Daniel Ricciardo finished 10th in his final Formula 1 qualifying session for now (hopefully). Sadly, for Danny Ric, he will start 13th due to a 3-place penalty.
Starting Grid for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and my Qualifying grades
Max Verstappen: 10
Sergio Perez: 9
Charles Leclerc: 8
Carlos Sainz: 7
Lewis Hamilton: 6
George Russell: 6
Lando Norris: 9
Esteban Ocon: 8
Sebastian Vettel: 8
Fernando Alonso: 6
Yuki Tsunoda: 6
Mick Schumacher: 5
Daniel Ricciardo: 7
Lance Stroll: 4
Zhou Guanyu: 3
Kevin Magnussen: 2
Pierre Gasly: 2
Valtteri Bottas: 1
Alex Albon: 2
Nicholas Latifi: 2
My Predictions for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Max Verstappen
Lewis Hamilton
Carlos Sainz
George Russell
Lando Norris
Comments