With the final qualifying session done, it’s time to judge who did the best job of producing a flying lap to get the best possible place on the grand prix grid in 2024.
Qualifying head-to-heads
No driver managed to go the entire season without being out-qualified at least once by a team mate. Max Verstappen came closest, but Sergio Perez beat him by two-tenths of a second in qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. That was the first time in 33 grands prix that Perez had out-qualified the world champion.Alexander Albon continued his unbeaten run against Logan Sargeant from last year. However Sargeant’s replacement but Franco Colapinto came out ahead twice.
Lando Norris, George Russell, Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas can all draw satisfaction from being conclusively the best qualifiers in their teams. Nico Hulkenberg may have soundly beaten Kevin Magnussen, but Oliver Bearman showed him up on his two appearances as a substitute at Haas.
The closest fight between two team mates occured at Alpine. Had they not dropped Esteban Ocon prior to this weekend’s race, Pierre Gasly would have had the chance to level the score against him this year.
| Qualifying scores | ||
|---|---|---|
| Max Verstappen | 23 – 1 | Sergio Perez |
| Lando Norris | 20 – 4 | Oscar Piastri |
| George Russell | 19 – 5 | Lewis Hamilton |
| Fernando Alonso | 19 – 5 | Lance Stroll |
| Valtteri Bottas | 19 – 4 | Zhou Guanyu |
| Nico Hulkenberg | 16 – 6 | Kevin Magnussen |
| Charles Leclerc | 14 – 9 | Carlos Sainz Jnr |
| Alexander Albon | 12 – 0 | Logan Sargeant |
| Yuki Tsunoda | 12 – 6 | Daniel Ricciardo |
| Esteban Ocon | 12 – 11 | Pierre Gasly |
| Alexander Albon | 7 – 2 | Franco Colapinto |
| Yuki Tsunoda | 6 – 0 | Liam Lawson |
| Oliver Bearman | 2 – 0 | Nico Hulkenberg |
| Charles Leclerc | 1 – 0 | Oliver Bearman |
| Pierre Gasly | 1 – 0 | Jack Doohan |
Methodology: Whichever team’s driver reached the later stage or set the faster lap time is judged the winner, unless either did not set a time
Q1
Sauber was by far the weakest team over a single flying lap in 2024. They were the only team whose cars were eliminated in more than half of all opportunities to drop out in Q1. Zhou Guanyu only progressed beyond the first round on four occasions.
McLaren were the best team at getting through Q1, their drivers only falling at the first hurdle once each. Red Bull fell in Q1 six times – but all of those were by Perez’s hand.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
NB. There was one fewer Q1 elimination than Q2 elimination because only one Williams participated in qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix
Q2
Step forward Fernando Alonso, who took his Aston Martin into Q3 16 times to Lance Stroll’s seven. Similarly Nico Hulkenberg claimed 11 Q3 appearances for Haas, Kevin Magnussen managing just three.
McLaren was the only team which never saw any of its drivers drop out in Q2. Their 46 Q3 appearances was the most of any team ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari (41 each) and Red Bull (38).
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Q3
No driver reached Q3 in every race weekend, but four made it on 23 out of 24 attempts. They were Norris (caught a yellow flag in Q1 in Baku), Russell (had to pit due to insufficient fuel in Q1 in Hungary), Piastri (missed the cut in Q1 in Mexico) and Verstappen (missed his last chance to set a time in Q2 in Brazil when Stroll crashed).
Zhou Guanyu was the only driver who participated in every round but never reached Q3 once.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Go ad-free for just £1 per month
>> Find out more and sign up
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
- Did Tsunoda ‘destroy’ his team mates – and are Red Bull wrong to pick Lawson over him?
- McLaren were ‘0.7 seconds away from losing the title’ in Abu Dhabi – Brown
- Another name change for RB and new driver numbers revealed in 2025 F1 entry list
- Ranked: The Formula 1 cars of 2024, from slowest to fastest
- McLaren are world champions with fewest grand prix wins in 25 years
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 9:43
Piastri’s deficit is alarming.
Wer
8th December 2024, 9:55
Some thoughts:
Lando Norris 20 – 4 Oscar Piastri
– Piastri needs to work on this first, before he demands more attention.
George Russell 19 – 5 Lewis Hamilton
– Utter decimation. It will be the same for Hamilton against the Monegasque.
Valtteri Bottas 19 – 4 Zhou Guanyu
– Zhou shows that nobody cares about poor drivers driving poor cars. He’s a waste of an F1 seat, but a seat nobody wants their favourite young talent to get.
Esteban Ocon 12 – 11 Pierre Gasly
– Ocon deserves more respect.
Nico Hulkenberg 16 – 6 Kevin Magnussen
Oliver Bearman 2 – 0 Nico Hulkenberg
– F1 is full of has-beens that never get tested for how good or bad they are. Bearman is not even a top F2 driver.
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 10:09
Let’s wait and see how Bearman does against Ocon first before judging this due to Hulkenberg being a has been. A sample size of two qualis means absolutely nothing. Those quali losses could easily have been caused by things we didn’t even notice (the media, including RF barely pays attention to midfield quali and race details)! Earlier in the season Stroll, on the surface of thing, “won” 3 qualis in a row, but two had actually been due to AM releasing FA too late to set a lap and another was due to a technical issue. Over the next 12 qualifying sessions Stroll hasn’t won a single one.
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 10:12
things*
As for Ocon, it’s a testament to how much better he was than Gasly prior to Monaco when Alpine stopped giving him any support that he still finished ahead in quali.
Wer
8th December 2024, 13:28
No no no. The stat shows that Magnussen is a has-been, not Hulkenberg. He got destroyed by Hulkenberg. And Bearman vs Hulkenberg just shows that Hulkenberg isn’t someone you should get destroyed by.
MichaelN
8th December 2024, 11:08
Lando Norris (20 – 4) Oscar Piastri
This one shouldn’t be this lopsided by now. Piastri needs to improve. Norris has been hyped a lot in the two previous years, but this year was a good reminder that beating Ricciardo after failing to match Sainz isn’t exactly a clear path to challenging Max Verstappen. And if Piastri can’t even beat Norris, he’s not going to be leading any championship campaigns any time soon either.
Charles Leclerc (14 – 9) Carlos Sainz Jnr
Fair play to Sainz. Leclerc is amazing in qualifying, but Sainz has done well for himself. Albon had better start making alternative plans for 2026 if Sainz keeps up this year’s fighting form.
Yuki Tsunoda (12 – 6) Daniel Ricciardo
Yuki Tsunoda (6 – 0) Liam Lawson
This just shows how bad a position Red Bull is in. Tsunoda is their ‘Honda tells us to’ driver, and he’s fended off everything Red Bull has managed to come up with since Gasly left for Renault. If this is the height of Marko’s driver development program, maybe it’s time for him to stop trying and just enjoy his retirement.
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 12:16
+1,000
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 12:22
I’d also put it this way: “If Yuki isn’t ready for RBR, what does that make Liam?” And they’re clearly not going to swallow their pride and sign Bottas (though personally, I don’t want to see that as it would be extremely boring as a fan).
gabriel
8th December 2024, 20:18
So lewis is the lance stroll of mercedes …
Paul (@frankjaeger)
8th December 2024, 20:46
20-4 is an absolute rout of Piastri. People quickly forget this after a few good performances