Qualifying Highlights | 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Lots of traffic. Sebastian Vettel is having to weave his way through at the end of the lap. Might pick up a little tow here to the line. Sebastian Vettel goes 5th fastest. 1.25.5. That might just be good enough, certainly to get him out of the bottom five, but to get him through to the next part of qualifying as well. Stroll goes 12th fastest. 1.25.7. He is right on the cusp with that one. Alex Albon, can he get out of the bottom five? No. His qualifying is over. His teammate, Nicholas Latifi, can still do something about it. Valtteri Bottas, oh dear, not been a good qualifying for Valtteri Bottas. He's out and he's currently only 16th fastest. Kevin Magnussen, pole in Sao Paulo, is currently the slowest man on the track. What a difference a week makes and he had to duck around. I think it was the red bull there, wasn't it? A little bit, but two corners to go then for Magnussen. He's done two personal bests. He's got half a chance here of sneaking into Q2. Oh, hanging on to the white line. He does sneak out of that bottom five. We're on board with Fernando Alonso. Who's not even done a personal best yet, but still gets the P14 at the moment. Only just for Fernando Alonso as Tsunoda goes 10th fastest. And Alonso, right on the cusp of things by about 5.01 of a second there, I think has made it. We've lost Latifi, Albon, Bottas, Gasly and Magnussen at only three tenths of a second between Vettel in P6 and Bottas in P18. Leclerc has gone fastest overall in the first sector. Schumacher now goes P8. Norris and Sainz have matched Leclerc through that first part of the lap, as has Fernando Alonso as well. And Alonso is currently in the bottom five with 35 seconds to go. Joe Guagnou needs this lap to count to get himself into Q3, and he hasn't done it. Eleventh fastest only misses out at the moment by 5.01 of a second. Tsunoda goes into the top ten. That pushes Lance Stroll, sadly for him, out of qualifying. And we're on board now with Esteban Ocon, who's another to make quite a big gain. So for Charles Leclerc, this lap is going to have to really count. And it looks like it's counting well as Daniel Ricciardo goes eighth fastest, pushes Tsunoda down to the fringes of the top ten. Tsunoda's out of qualifying as Fernando Alonso goes P9. Lando Norris, still out on the road, could do something about his position. Charles Leclerc goes second fastest, aced the first sector, produced some very nice middle and final sectors as well. So here's Lando Norris as Carlos Sainz goes third fastest to try and knock Fernando Alonso out of qualifying. And that could be crucial in the battle for fourth place in the championship, because Norris is through. So Norris just pushes out. It's P11, unfortunately. It's OK. Alonso is out. Tsunoda, Schumacher, Stroll and Joe join him in the bottom five. This man, Sebastian Vettel, well, he's in Q3. He has produced a couple of barnstorming laps here and ended up eighth fastest overall. That is a phenomenal effort. Verstappen's had to back off and let the two flying Mercedes through, which might hamper his tyre preparation a little bit. We shall see. 1.24.6, then, for Lewis Hamilton. That's his best lap in this entire qualifying session. George Russell goes second fastest behind him at less than two one hundredths of a second, separating the two Mercedes. And he goes into provisional pole, does Charles Leclerc. But I wonder how long this is going to last, because his teammate, Carlos Sainz, triple pole sitter in 2022, has got just under a tenth in hand to take provisional pole himself. Sergio, oh, no, he didn't. Not that final corner, he didn't. And is that where he lost the time that cost him provisional pole? Absolutely. But Perez, then, still ahead of Charles Leclerc. Only provisionally will get another run to come. Max Verstappen in FP2 yesterday had about three and a half tenths on the rest of the field. Was that in track limits? He goes on to provisional pole, Max Verstappen. 17.2 for Lewis Hamilton. Best first sector for Hamilton. He's got George Russell right behind him, picking up a slipstream, too. Leclerc goes second fastest. Did a very fine final sector. Verstappen currently up on his provisional pole time. Lando Norris next to cross the line goes P7 for McLaren. Yeah, so that was Max giving his teammate a help down the back straight. But it's still all about his own lap. Carlos Sainz can't improve. He'll be third at best. But what can Perez and Hamilton do behind him? Brilliant middle sector from Sergio Perez. He's gone a couple of tenths faster than anyone else has managed so far. He was half a second clear of Lewis Hamilton in that middle sector. Verstappen extends his time advantage. Provisional pole is his. Sergio Perez goes on to the front row for Red Bull. It's Red Bull 1 and 2. What can Lewis Hamilton do about that? It's not been a good qualifying for Ferrari. They're 3 and 4 at the moment. They wanted one of their cars on the front row. Have Mercedes found pace right at the end? Hamilton couldn't do it in the final sector. Only fifth for him. George Russell crosses the line and it's Red Bull occupying the front row. Verstappen ahead of Perez. Well done, Max. That was a very good job. Well done. How did we do? Yeah, first and second. Well done. Great job. Okay, good job. Yeah, that's a good team effort, that. It's the 25th front row lockout for Red Bull in the history of the team. Only their second in the hybrid era since the start of 2014.