Max sixth during qualifying Abu Dhabi: “Didn’t manage to get the balance right”

Published on 25 November 2017 by Mike Motilall

Max Verstappen will be starting the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from sixth. The Dutchman did a 1:37.328 during the final qualifying of this year. This was ultimately a second slower than polesitter Valtteri Bottas. Lewis Hamilton rounded up the Mercedes-party by coming in second fastest. Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo finished third and fourth.

“It was bad”, said Max, as he didn’t beat around the bush. “But I have been struggling finding the right balance of the car all weekend long. I am not happy with it. So you try to do a good lap as possible, but when that even doesn’t go right, you need to accept that as well. There wasn’t much more in store than a sixth place.”

Despite a major improvement in his last flying lap, the Dutchman is not happy about his fastest lap: “The previous laps were just not good. That last lap was reasonable, but even then I was not happy with the balance of the car. It meant slipping all the time, no grip at the rear and then understeering in the next corner. There was no way finding any balance. It is also not possible to really change anything once you start qualifying, so you know it’s a lost cause and you just try to do a good lap as possible, but that’s still not good enough. I don’t know what went wrong. Or else we could have changed it. We now need to understand what went wrong and hopefully we can learn from it for the race tomorrow.”

Last year Verstappen fought his way back to P4 after a spin in the first corner. Max is not sure if the speed is there again to fight his way to the front this time round: “I don’t know. If it’s the same as today, no way. If you are not happy with the short runs, the longer runs won’t be great either, but we’ll find out tomorrow. This year we have different cars and different tyres, it’s a complete different ball game and I even think that we are trailing a bit more than last year. We just need to wait and see.”

At sun set, qualifying on the Yas Marina Circuit gets underway. Max Verstappen clocks a 1:38.419 in his first flying lap on the ultra-soft tyres. This puts him in P6. He is already a tenth faster than in final practice with this time. The Dutchman decides to go for it again and betters his time to a 1:38.021, just five thousandths of a second behind team mate Daniel Ricciardo, who’s fifth. The sixth fastest time is good enough for Max to move on to Q2. Drop outs, in the first part of qualifying, are Romain Grosjean (Haas), Pierr Gasly (Toro Rosso), both Saubers of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson and Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso).

In the second part of qualifying, Verstappen comes in seventh fastest in his first run with a 1:38.143. During his second run, Max is able to better his time to a 1:37.777 and moves up to P6, just one second behind Lewis Hamilton, who’s first. And once again, this is good enough to move on to the next part of qualifying. Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, Stoffel Vandoorne, Kevin Magnussen and Lance Stroll didn’t make the cut in Q2.

Verstappen opens the third and final part of qualifying with a 1:37.696, which puts him in fifth. Bottas has the provisional pole after his first run with a 1:36.231. In the all deciding, final flying lap, Max betters his time to a 1:37.328. Red Bull Racing team mate Daniel Ricciardo does a better job and moves up to P4. This puts Verstappen eventually in sixth. Nobody is able to better Bottas’ time, causing the Fin to snatch his second pole in a row. Hamilton makes it an all Mercedes front row while Vettel will be starting the race in third. Kimi Raikkonen manages to squeeze himself between Ricciardo and Verstappen in fifth place. Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon and Felipe Massa, driving his final Formula1-race tomorrow, all round up the top ten.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Yas Marina Circuit - Saturday 25 November

RESULTS QUALIFYING

01 77 Valtteri Bottas     Mercedes                    1:37.356 1:36.822 1:36.231 18
02 44 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes                    1:37.391 1:36.742 1:36.403 19
03  5 Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari                     1:37.817 1:37.023 1:36.777 18
04  3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:38.016 1:37.583 1:36.959 16
05  7 Kimi Raikkonen      Ferrari                     1:37.453 1:37.302 1:36.985 17
06 33 Max Verstappen      Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:38.021 1:37.777 1:37.328 19
07 27 Nico Hulkenberg     Renault                     1:38.781 1:38.138 1:38.282 14
08 11 Sergio Perez        Force India Mercedes        1:38.601 1:38.359 1:38.374 17
09 31 Esteban Ocon        Force India Mercedes        1:38.896 1:38.392 1:38.397 17
10 19 Felipe Massa        Williams Mercedes           1:38.629 1:38.565 1:38.550 18
11 14 Fernando Alonso     McLaren Honda               1:38.820 1:38.636          12
12 55 Carlos Sainz        Renault                     1:38.810 1:38.725          9
13  2 Stoffel Vandoorne   McLaren Honda               1:38.777 1:38.808          9
14 20 Kevin Magnussen     Haas Ferrari                1:39.395 1:39.298          16
15 18 Lance Stroll        Williams Mercedes           1:39.503 1:39.646          14
16  8 Romain Grosjean     Haas Ferrari                1:39.516                   10
17 10 Pierre Gasly        Toro Rosso                  1:39.724                   9
18 94 Pascal Wehrlein     Sauber Ferrari              1:39.930                   9
19  9 Marcus Ericsson     Sauber Ferrari              1:39.994                   9
20 28 Brendon Hartley     Toro Rosso                  1:40.471                   8

Abu Dhabi GP contest: win a Max Verstappen/Red Bull Racing jacket!