Max Verstappen takes pole at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sergio Perez secures qualifying lockout for Red Bull

Max Verstappen took pole position in qualifying at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday, with Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez second.

Attention will now turn to Verstappen’s relationship with Perez with just one race left in the season. Last weekend at Sao Paulo, the Dutchman refused to give up his place to his Mexican team-mate, leaving Perez tied with Charles Leclerc of Ferrari on 290 points in the race for second place.

Red Bull have never had a one-two finish in the drivers’ championship before..

At the end of the session, Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) and Williams drivers Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi failed to make the cut.

In the second round, there were exits for Fernando Alonso making his last appearance for Alpine, with another departing driver, Haas’ Mick Schumacher 13th. Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll and Zhou Guanyu also exited ahead of the final runout for the cars ahead of Sunday’s race.

While Red Bull took the front row, Leclerc will attempt to put the pressure on in third, and he may be helped by his Spanish team-mate Carlos Sainz alongside him.

After their success last weekend, Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton (fifth) and George Russell (sixth) were back to their familiar position for 2022, behind the top two teams.

The rest of the top 10 was completed by McLaren’s Lando Norris in seventh, with his outgoing team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in 10th. Esteban Ocon was eighth for Alpine, while Sebastian Vettel starts the final Grand Prix of his career from ninth.