Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Yas Marina, 2020

2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix grid

2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Row 11. Max Verstappen 1’35.246
Red Bull
2. Valtteri Bottas 1’35.271
Mercedes
Row 23. Lewis Hamilton 1’35.332
Mercedes
4. Lando Norris 1’35.497
McLaren
Row 35. Alexander Albon 1’35.571
Red Bull
6. Carlos Sainz Jnr 1’35.815
McLaren
Row 47. Daniil Kvyat 1’35.963
AlphaTauri
8. Lance Stroll 1’36.046
Racing Point
Row 59. Pierre Gasly 1’36.242
AlphaTauri
10. Esteban Ocon 1’36.359
Renault
Row 611. Daniel Ricciardo 1’36.406
Renault
12. Charles Leclerc 1’36.065
Ferrari
Row 713. Sebastian Vettel 1’36.631
Ferrari
14. Antonio Giovinazzi 1’38.248
Alfa Romeo
Row 815. Kimi Raikkonen 1’37.555
Alfa Romeo
16. George Russell 1’38.045
Williams
Row 917. Pietro Fittipaldi 1’38.173
Haas
18. Nicholas Latifi 1’38.443
Williams
Row 1019. Sergio Perez No time
Racing Point
20. Kevin Magnussen 1’37.863
Haas

Penalties

Charles Leclerc – Three-place penalty for causing a collision with Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez – Start from back of grid due to exceeding maximum number of power unit components
Kevin Magnussen – Start from back of grid due to exceeding maximum number of power unit components

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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22 comments on “2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix grid”

  1. MAX!!!
    What a driver. The future of F1 is looking promising.

    1. @lums considering the performance difference of the cars, I would have said that Norris’s lap is the stand out lap from Q3.

      1. Yeah, by quite a margin I’d say. Lando out-qualified his teammate by over .3’s!! Of course VER did as well, but you know…. Albon.

        1. @jeffreyj and it’s not as if it was simply because Sainz made a mistake either, as Sainz’s time was a fairly solid lap in its own right too. Norris’s first lap was also a pretty decent one too, considering that he was fairly close to pole for somebody on a used set of tyres and a midfield car.

      2. Yeah, I just saw both Max’ lap (side to side with Bottas) and Landos laps and that lap in the McLaren really looks perfectly done.

  2. George could have put Merc on pole today.

    1. Well considering he couldn’t put it on pole last week, at a shorter track, he probably would have been further behind Bottas today.

    2. Hehehehe nope!

    3. lexusreliabilty?
      12th December 2020, 14:19

      George could have put Merc on pole today.

      And Hamilton would have put it on pole and won the race last weekend?

  3. Great laps from Max and Lando! But what was going on with Mercedes and also Charles?! Both Mercs and Leclerc were going slower and slower after Q1! Surely it can’t be down to wind speed or some dust/sand blowing onto the track?!
    Very strange to see, considering the Mercs have been going faster than last year at most tracks this season.
    And here they are all of a sudden 0.5 slower than last year. That’s quite a lot.

    1. @srga91

      Merc didn’t seem to make the gains that Red Bull were making when they switched to the softer rubber, even in practice. This track is a weird one and one of the longest though, maybe they were just overheating their tyres.

      1. @blazzz
        That might be an explanation. It surely must’ve something to do with the tyres.
        I was having a look at last year’s best sector times to get a comparison and it was quite interesting:
        Mercedes were matching their best time in S1, lost out by 0.2 in S2 (could be down to engine mode) and lost even more, 0.3 in the final sector.
        RB lost 0.1 in S1, lost about 0.05 in S2 and again 0.1 in S3.
        Ferrari had the strangest differences in time, as you’d probably expect. They lost 0.4 in S1, also lost about 0.35 in S2, but strangely they improved by 0.4 in the final sector.

  4. What a lap by Verstappen! Way to close out qualifying, top 3 seperated by less than a tenth. Quite exciting and I think it sets up the race nicely. Bottas needed that I think. But for me- Norris had the lap of the day in that Mclaren. To be a couple of tenths off pole in a Mclaren is highly commendable.

    1. @blazzz Yep great laps from Max and Lando, but especially Lando remarkably close to pole and finishes the season 9-8 in his quali head to head with Carlos.

    2. Yes fantastic lap by Max. Well done sir!
      Seems a bit odd that the mercs were so slow… slower than last year. Most strange. Still… great lap from max! Controlled and aggressive driving. Very un max like but Kudos to him. He is learning.
      Waiting to hear all the anti Lewis brigade with all the: George is faster, George is better. Let the entertainment begin😀

  5. Seems McLaren holds the advantage for the moment. If Racing Point had two cars in Q3, it would have been nice.

  6. Norris really had a good lap too indeed, just saw that one, pretty special effort. Hope next year he can show more of that. Verstappen too, of course, but he’s been pretty consistent, just that today they actually had the pace (or Merc. lacked a bit, I think) so his good effort gave them pole. The AT also showing up well and that lap by Kvyat really was a good lap to say goodby to F1 qualifying too.

    Renault a bit disappointing maybe. Perez Q1 lap was great (would have been 8th had he driven it in Q3, w/o the track evolution, but probably using the Q3 mode one last time, right!), pity he has to start at the back so it didn’t matter much.

  7. I find it strange Kvyat’s car is suddenly working properly these last few races.
    I may be wrong, but I believed at the beginning of the season they had decided to get a Japanese driver into the car and Kvyat didn’t get as much support as Gasly being that he was going to be leaving anyway.
    Now the deed’s been done no need to hold back the drivers on their setup direction.

  8. Maybe Kvyat doesn’t feel pressure anymore, knowing he’s gonna lose the seat anyway?
    Good couple of races from him.

    1. He said post race the car has only been to his liking for the last 4 races. Now he can drive it properly…

  9. And there’s silence around Portugal.

Comments are closed.