Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has hailed “a simply lovely” pole position for 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Verstappen arrived in Abu Dhabi just 12 points behind championship leader, Lando Norris and was second-fastest behind the Brit in both Friday Practice sessions, before the pair finished second and third in FP3 behind Mercedes’ George Russell.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri then Russell topped the opening two segments of Qualifying but Verstappen benefitted from the tow of teammate, Yuki Tsunoda on his first Q3 flier to claim provisional pole with 1m 22.395.
He then bettered his original lap with 1m 22.207 to make sure of pole position with Norris alongside him and only needing a podium irrespective of Verstappen’s result to claim his maiden F1 title, whereas Verstappen is chasing a fifth consecutive title.
Verstappen post-session described his pole as “Simply Lovely” as he praised Red Bull for their work to develop the car throughout every session.
“We did well the whole weekend, have been fine tuning the car and then also made some final changes which helped the car a little bit. This allowed me to push a bit more to the limit and extract the most out of the car. We were improving nicely in Qualifying and then found a little bit more lap time with the corners.”
Verstappen however is dubious as to whether he can continue his pace in race trim although the title isn’t in his hands to control, but credited Tsunoda for his tow in Q3.
“Thank you to Yuki for the tow, it helped for sure, but it was nice of him to give up one of his laps. He was a great Team player, so thank you for that.
“Tomorrow, the plan is to win the race and then we need a bit of luck to win the Championship, it’s as simple as that. We will go all out and have nothing to lose, whether we need to attack or defend.
“The most important battle needs to happen tomorrow and we need to outscore them by 12 points; we knew that if we wanted to be in the fight we had to be first. I have the least to lose and I am very relaxed. It is exciting to be on Pole, but we just need a bit of luck for the rest of it and some Abu Dhabi magic.”
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