By Ian Chadband
Oscar Piastri’s dream of becoming world F1 champion has taken another potentially crushing blow after he could only finish third behind his two title rivals in qualifying at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Australian hopeful, already a long shot outsider in third place in the title race, will now start Sunday’s season-ender at Yas Marina on the second row, with Max Verstappen on pole and championship leader Lando Norris alongside the Dutch ace on the front row.
Pole position qualifier Max Verstappen with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.Credit: Getty Images
Red Bull’s four-time champion Verstappen, 12 points behind Norris in the standings but four ahead of Piastri, demonstrated on Saturday that he could yet spoil the McLaren party as he delivered another of his special flying qualifying laps in 1 minute 22.207 seconds.
That was 0.201 seconds faster than Norris, who at least managed to pip his teammate Piastri by the agonisingly tight margin of 29-thousandths of a second.
That should make the Briton’s task more straightforward in Sunday’s race as Norris only needs to finish in the top three to guarantee a maiden championship title.
In their first runs in Q3, Verstappen had negotiated the 21 corners of the Yas Marina circuit 0.327 seconds faster than Piastri and nearly half-a-second clear of Norris.
Piastri steers his car during the qualifying session.Credit: AP
But though the McLaren duo improved with their final laps, Norris leapfrogging Piastri to move on to the front row, Verstappen responded brilliantly again.
So, F1 bosses have got what they hoped for in the final race of the year – all three world championship contenders taking the leading positions on the grid.
But Verstappen is the one who’s charging. “Let’s f****** go!” he declared jubilantly on the radio as he celebrated his pole lap.
Earlier, Piastri had only finished fifth in final practice, while Norris was second and Verstappen third, behind George Russell.
Mercedes’ Russell went on to finish fourth in qualifying ahead of Charles Leclerc, whose ailing Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton suffered another dispiriting day, crashing in final practice before getting knocked out of Q1, meaning he’ll be starting from 16th on Sunday.
“Every time, mate, I am so sorry,” said Hamilton on the radio after Leclerc out-qualified him for the 19th time in 24 appearances this season.
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