{"id":429095,"date":"2025-12-06T16:06:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T16:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/429095\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T16:06:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T16:06:13","slug":"verstappen-on-pole-for-f1-title-deciding-abu-dhabi-gp-ahead-of-norris-and-piastri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/429095\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen on pole for F1 title-deciding Abu Dhabi GP ahead of Norris and Piastri"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Max Verstappen took a brilliant pole position for the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ahead of Formula 1<\/a> title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The thrilling three-way battle<\/a> will be decided on Sunday at the Yas Marina Circuit. The McLaren driver Norris is 12 points ahead of Red Bull\u2019s Verstappen and 16 ahead of McLaren teammate Piastri.<\/p>\n

Verstappen is aiming for his fifth straight F1 title \u2014 Norris and Piastri are chasing their first. All three drivers have won seven races.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman is ready to fight for another title battle on the final day \u2014 just like in 2021<\/a>, when he beat seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton on the last lap to clinch his first championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find out tomorrow don\u2019t we?\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cI will try and win the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pole position is crucial on the 58-lap circuit in Abu Dhabi, where overtaking is hard. Every driver has won from pole since 2015. The last driver not to win from pole was Nico Rosberg in 2014, when he was beaten by his then-Mercedes teammate Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Verstappen had already set the fastest lap on his first go but went even quicker on his second attempt and clocked 1 minute, 22.207 seconds, making him .201 faster than Norris and .230 quicker than Piastri.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was insane,\u201d Verstappen said over team radio after his eighth pole of the season and 48th overall. \u201cYes. Lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen kissed his girlfriend, Kelly Piquet, and shook hands with McLaren CEO Zak Brown.<\/p>\n

Norris will win the title if he\u2019s on the podium in Abu Dhabi. Even if Verstappen wins, the Dutchman needs Norris to be fourth or lower. If Piastri wins, he requires Norris to finish outside the top five.<\/p>\n

Norris will start from the front row but was disappointed not to be on pole.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just weren\u2019t fast enough today. We\u2019ll have to try and do it tomorrow,\u201d he said. \u201cI still want to try and win tomorrow, so that\u2019s going to be the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri was content with his performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cNicely done,\u201d he said. \u201cWasn\u2019t much left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton was eliminated from Q1, the first section of qualifying, for the third straight race. He also crashed in third practice<\/a> due to a driver error earlier Saturday, and has not qualified inside the top 10 for four consecutive races.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so sorry,\u201d Hamilton said over team radio. \u201cThere are no words to express how I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about 2026, a dejected-sounding Hamilton said \u201cI\u2019m not looking that far ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes driver George Russell qualified fourth ahead of Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc, who fared much better than his more illustrious teammate.<\/p>\n

Hamilton struggles again<\/p>\n

Russell led third practice ahead of Norris and Verstappen.<\/p>\n

But Hamilton lost the rear of the Ferrari coming out of Turn 9 and spun full circle before sliding into the barriers, bringing out the red flag. He stepped out of the car and picked up some of the debris himself.<\/p>\n

Hamilton owns F1 records for most wins (104) and pole positions (104) but called his own performance \u201c terrible<\/a> \u201d this season.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old Briton won a sprint race<\/a> in China in March, but nothing else this season. He has not even been on the podium in a main race this campaign.<\/p>\n

Norris showed good pace to lead Friday\u2019s first two practice sessions<\/a> ahead of Verstappen.<\/p>\n

McLaren rues errors<\/p>\n

Norris had the chance to wrap up the title at last week\u2019s Qatar Grand Prix but a botched strategy call<\/a> by McLaren handed Verstappen the win, boosting his chances of a fifth straight title to equal Michael Schumacher\u2019s feat with Ferrari from 2000-04.<\/p>\n

Verstappen\u2019s victory in Qatar was his 70th overall. His title chances improved after Norris and Piastri were disqualified in Las Vegas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tense title race<\/p>\n

After winning the Dutch GP<\/a> on Aug. 31, Piastri led by Norris by 34 points and was 104 ahead of Verstappen, who had won just two races.<\/p>\n

Piastri, who is looking to become the first Australian champion in 45 years, hasn\u2019t won in eight races since his Zandvoort win.<\/p>\n

When Norris won the Brazil GP sprint race in early November, he moved 39 ahead of Verstappen with four races to go.<\/p>\n

Verstappen also qualified in 16th<\/a> for the main race in Sao Paulo and said he could \u201c forget about<\/a> \u201d winning the title at that point.<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s a different feeling.<\/p>\n

After taking yet another superb pole, Verstappen stood proudly on his car and did a \u201cNo. 1\u201d gesture with his finger. ___<\/p>\n

AP auto racing: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/auto-racing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Max Verstappen took a brilliant pole position for the title-deciding Abu…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":429096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[32474,5218,4703,189108,189109,189111,18452,23740,20319,18451,81657,199570,34614,62,67,132,68,199571],"class_list":{"0":"post-429095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-abu-dhabi","9":"tag-auto-racing","10":"tag-automobile-racing","11":"tag-charles-leclerc","12":"tag-formula-one","13":"tag-formula-one-racing","14":"tag-george-russell","15":"tag-lando-norris","16":"tag-lewis-hamilton","17":"tag-max-verstappen","18":"tag-michael-schumacher","19":"tag-nico-rosberg","20":"tag-oscar-piastri","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-zak-brown"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115673483623389296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}