Verstappen overjoyed with crucial pole as he sets out plan for Abu Dhabi title-decider

Max Verstappen could not hide his delight and satisfaction after producing another spectacular Qualifying display to bag pole position for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Verstappen had trailed championship leader Lando Norris in all three practice sessions at the Yas Marina Circuit but the Red Bull driver turned the tables when it mattered with two rapid laps in the decisive Q3 phase.

His ultimate benchmark time of 1m 22.207s was two-tenths quicker than Norris’s effort, with the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri a few hundredths further back – meaning all three title challengers will start together at the front of the grid.

“Well, in Q2 I stayed on scrubbed tyres, and I think those laps already felt quite decent,” said Verstappen afterwards, having experienced some balance issues in practice. “Then in Q3, around here the track temp is coming down, you know that you can push a bit more, and that’s exactly what we did.

“We found a bit more lap time and of course I’m incredibly happy to be in first. That’s the only thing that we can do, right? That’s the only thing that we can control.

“I try to just maximise everything we have, what we have with the car, and we definitely did that in Qualifying.”

Pushed on the challenge of setting the car up in Abu Dhabi, given the warmer, unrepresentative FP1 and FP3 sessions, he added: “You have to of course try and guess a little bit how much the track is going to improve, and of course it cools down a lot.

“You’re never like 100% sure if it’s going to work, but I do think that what we changed definitely helped me a little bit more to feel better in Qualifying.”

Now Verstappen and the rest of the field’s focus switches to Sunday’s race, where the reigning four-time World Champion will be looking to overturn Norris’ 12-point advantage – the Briton knowing a podium is enough to secure the title.

Asked if it will be all eyes forward, rather than worrying about what the McLarens are doing, Verstappen said: “We’ll find out tomorrow! Let’s see what we can do.

“Of course, I will try to win the race, but also in the back of my mind we want to try and score a lot of points to still try and win that championship. We need a bit of luck on what is happening behind us.”

Verstappen also offered a few words of gratitude to outgoing team mate Yuki Tsunoda, who made it through to Q3 and gave the Dutchman a tow en route to his own Qualifying position of 10th.