As Red Bull hold all the cards up front, the finale’s best fights are in the midfield · RaceFans

In what might go down as probably the most profitable seasons any Method 1 crew have ever loved, it’s unusual to suppose that it took solely till the ultimate race of the 2022 season for Crimson Bull to safe their first entrance row lockout of the yr.

With Ferrari and Charles Leclerc having fun with a lot of the success on Saturdays this season, Verstappen’s pole in Abu Dhabi was simply his seventh of his second championship-winning marketing campaign. With Sergio Perez taking second on the grid, Sunday’s race will solely be the primary time two Crimson Bulls have shared a entrance row because the 2018 Mexican Grand Prix.

Crimson Bull crew principal Christian Horner has had rather a lot to cheer about over the course of the yr, however he was unsurprisingly thrilled on the prospect of punctuating the season with Crimson Bull’s most dominant exhibiting.

“We’re tremendously proud of the efficiency because it provides us a chance to finish our most profitable season in the absolute best method,” Horner stated. “We couldn’t have requested for a greater Saturday, however there may be nonetheless rather a lot to do. Now we should give attention to changing this into the absolute best end result.”

That Verstappen was the one on pole was of little shock. What was uncommon was that Perez had discovered the tempo to again up his crew mate and beat the Ferraris and Mercedes within the course of. However a part of that would have been because of with Verstappen himself. By giving Perez a tow alongside the 2 fundamental straights, Perez was the one driver to interrupt 330kph. Did that enhance assist him to safe a entrance row begin?

“Yeah, it definitely did,” Perez stated. “I believe we labored rather well as a crew in the present day. And I might really feel, particularly sector two, it was working. What you acquire, you lose a bit in sector three, however usually, I believe definitely it was a optimistic factor.”

The latest resurgence of Mercedes got here to a halt in Yas Marina. Ferrari have been closest to the Crimson Bulls on Saturday – a stark turnaround from how issues seemed simply 24 hours earlier. However heading into the ultimate race of the season, who did Verstappen see as the most important risk to Crimson Bull – Ferrari or Mercedes?

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“It’s troublesome to inform in the mean time,” Verstappen stated. “I believe, from our aspect, we seemed good in FP2 with the long term and it appeared like each Ferrari and Mercedes appeared to wrestle just a little bit extra on the time. However I don’t know what they’ve accomplished in a single day so I suppose we’ll discover out tomorrow.”

Leclerc was solely half a tenth off from Perez and had truly gained appreciable time on him by way of the ultimate nook, suggesting that, on uncooked single lap tempo alone, Ferrari aren’t too far off from at the very least one of many Crimson Bulls. However Leclerc is just not certain whether or not they’ll have the ability to communicate over the race.

“It’s troublesome to know for now,” stated Leclerc. “We had a troublesome FP2. Throughout the race simulations, it felt undoubtedly fairly a bit higher this morning, however we had no reference. So it’s a little bit of a query mark for now. I really feel like we’re in a greater place in comparison with yesterday – whether or not this is sufficient to beat the Crimson Bulls tomorrow, I don’t know but. However we’ll give it our all.”

As races at Abu Dhabi are typically pretty pedestrian and Ferrari have been admittedly fighting tyre degradation over the course of their excessive gas runs on Friday, they may take a raffle on an aggressive technique. In contrast to final yr’s race, which was a simple one-stopper till a VSC and a Security Automotive difficult the image within the later levels, Pirelli are firmly anticipating a two-stop technique would be the most suitable choice because of the elevated tyre put on anticipated. However might Ferrari strive one thing completely different with Leclerc or crew mate Carlos Sainz Jnr to keep away from having to win a straight struggle in opposition to Crimson Bull?

“We’ll should see as soon as we’re within the race and what are the alternatives at that second,” stated Leclerc. “Clearly Carlos is beginning proper behind me and hopefully we will put a little bit of stress on Checo by doing various things.”

However whereas Ferrari shall be trying to transfer forward within the race, Mercedes shall be aiming simply to remain in contact with the Ferraris. Fifth and sixth was a disappointment, however not as a lot because the margin their rivals held over them.

“We got here right here anticipating this to be a troublesome one for us however we didn’t count on a niche of eight tenths to pole place,” Lewis Hamilton admitted. “I gave it the whole lot, so it’s a little bit of a shocking end result and simply being up to now behind Crimson Bull and Ferrari. Hopefully our race tempo tomorrow shall be higher than our qualifying tempo in the present day.”

Hamilton was briefly up on Verstappen’s pole time by way of the primary sector, till hitting the brakes for flip 5 – the identical level that Verstappen handed him to grab the championship away through the fateful last lap final yr. Whereas each Hamilton and Russell misplaced time to the 4 automobiles forward down the 2 lengthy straights, Hamilton was on target to beat Sainz to fourth earlier than a mistake by way of flip 14 beneath the resort probably price him the place.

However regardless of a disappointing Saturday, Mercedes crew principal Toto Wolff has final yr’s race firmly in his thoughts – when Crimson Bull had the higher hand in qualifying just for Mercedes to take again the benefit in race tempo.

“It’s high velocity versus tyre saving,” summed up Wolff. “So we will see tomorrow if we will actually acquire a bonus and be happier with the tyres.”

Past the struggle for the win – nevertheless a lot of a struggle it could be – there are two essential battles to be selected Sunday, neither of which being the sideshow of who will end second within the drivers championship.

McLaren’s slim possibilities of overtaking Alpine for fourth place have been aided by Lando Norris out-qualifying Esteban Ocon, whereas Fernando Alonso failed to achieve the highest ten. However Norris is aware of he and crew mate Daniel Ricciardo don’t management McLaren’s future within the race.

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“This has most likely been our greatest weekend for fairly some time when it comes to tempo in opposition to them,” Norris defined. “So we’ve given ourselves as many alternatives going to tomorrow that we will. The remaining is just not all the way down to us, the remainder is all the way down to misfortune or fortune both method. However we’re in a very good place to attain some good factors tomorrow so we’ll do this and hope the remainder simply goes our method.”

Alonso has made a behavior of executing methods successfully to maneuver up the order throughout races. It seems he’s aiming to try the identical throughout his last race with the crew. “We’re one of many few groups that has two exhausting tyre [sets],” Alonso defined. “So possibly we will use that in our benefit tomorrow within the race.”

Alfa Romeo must keep away from being out-scored by greater than 5 factors if they’re to cling onto sixth place within the championship. With Valtteri Bottas eradicated from Q1, Zhou Guanyu knocked out in fifteenth in Q2 and Sebastian Vettel solidly within the high ten, it’s going to be a nervous last 58 laps of the season for Alfa Romeo.

“We went into qualifying realizing we had good tempo, so I consider in the present day’s end result doesn’t actually replicate the place our automotive truly is,” claimed Bottas after his Q1 exit. “It was an odd feeling, we simply couldn’t get the tyres to work in our out-lap and, because of this, our sector one tempo suffered. It’s irritating, in fact, however now we have to put together in the absolute best method for tomorrow’s race.”

However nobody shall be as motivated heading into Sunday’s race than Sebastian Vettel. In what appears more likely to be his last grand prix begin, the retiring Aston Martin driver shall be trying to finish his illustrious profession on a excessive with sufficient factors to present his crew an additional place at a circuit that has been so sort to him over the seasons.

“Completely, we’ll strive to do this,” Vettel stated. “We’ll see what occurs. I really feel now we have the suitable tyres with us and it must be a very good race.”

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Qualifying instances in full

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Sector instances

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Velocity entice

Over to you

Is there any life like probability Crimson Bull shall be crushed to victory on Sunday? How will the opposite championship fights be determined?

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