Qualifying Results & Report 2025 Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix

Event: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Track: Yas Marina Circuit

Weather: dry  27.9°C
Tarmac: dry  39.9°C
Humidity : 56.0%
Wind : 11.8 km/h South

Max Verstappen scored the 48th F1 pole position of his career during the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying session today. The Dutch driver will start from P1 for the fifth time on Yas Marina circuit, it was his 8th pole of the 2025 season and the 112th pole for Red Bull Racing.

2025 Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying: Verstappen Takes Vital Pole

Title fight goes all-in under the Yas Marina lights

Round 24, the Yas Marina Circuit, and three drivers still in the hunt for the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship. Lando Norris arrives in Abu Dhabi with a 12-point cushion over Max Verstappen, with Oscar Piastri a further four behind his McLaren team mate. All three made Q3. All three had the pace. But when it mattered over one lap in the desert twilight, it was Verstappen who blinked last – and least.

The Red Bull star unleashed a stunning 1m 22.207s to grab pole by two tenths from Norris, with Piastri just 0.029s further back. The McLaren duo lock out the rest of the top three, yet the Dutchman now starts from the slot that has produced the race winner here for the last ten consecutive years.

Norris still holds the points advantage. Verstappen now owns the grid-position trump card. Piastri, wedged between them in the championship race, must somehow turn third on the grid into a title miracle.

Verstappen delivers when the track is at its best

The pattern of the day suggested this was always going to be a knife-edge session. Verstappen had been quietly ominous through practice, never outside the top three and with plenty of grumbling about bouncing masking a very quick RB21. Russell topped FP3 ahead of Norris by just 0.004s, while Piastri looked a touch out of rhythm, only fifth and a couple of tenths off.

In Q3, Verstappen and Red Bull executed almost perfectly. On the first runs, with the McLarens on slightly used softs, Verstappen banged in a 1m 22.295s on fresh tyres to set the early benchmark. Piastri, on older rubber, couldn’t get within three tenths. Norris slotted in behind his team mate. Advantage Verstappen.

Then came the games. Yuki Tsunoda – in what is now confirmed as his final Grand Prix qualifying as a Red Bull race driver – was deployed as the perfect tow car, dragging Verstappen down the straights on his out-lap and helping him into clean air. The McLarens had no such luxury, choosing to prioritise fresh air over slipstream.

When it all ramped up in the final two minutes, Piastri was first to go. He matched Verstappen in Sector 1, but the Red Bull had more in hand as the track temperature dropped and grip came to him. Piastri’s final lap was tidy and committed – “there wasn’t a lot left in that” as he put it – but it yielded only P3.

Norris crossed next and split them, grabbing second but still 0.201s shy of Verstappen. The Dutchman then underlined his intent by improving again, just to twist the knife. Over one lap, no one could live with him.

“Incredibly happy to be first. That’s all we can do, that’s all we can control,” Verstappen said afterwards – but he knows full well that simply winning the race is unlikely to be enough if Norris cruises home in P2 or P3.

McLaren pair close – but not quite close enough

From McLaren’s point of view, qualifying was simultaneously encouraging and mildly frustrating. They locked out second and third on the grid, kept their chief rival in sight, and crucially avoided chaos on a day when one mistake would have dropped either car into genuine midfield traffic.

Yet this is also a circuit where track position usually reigns supreme. Team boss Andrea Stella admitted Red Bull “had one or two tenths more than us today”, accepting that pole was probably out of reach even had the papaya cars nailed two perfect Q3 laps on fresh tyres.

Still, Norris knows that the bigger picture matters more than Saturday glory. He sounded composed afterwards – disappointed not to be on pole for the final weekend, but clear-eyed about the job ahead.

“I still want to try and win tomorrow, that’s the goal,” he said. But in the back of his mind is that 12-point buffer and the knowledge that a safe, clean second place would almost certainly make him World Champion.

Piastri, 16 points down and needing to win with Norris sixth or worse, is the one who must roll the dice. The Australian has had weekends this year where he’s been untouchable from FP1 onwards; this one has been a slow burn. After missing FP1 and a scruffy FP2, he’s gradually cranked up the speed and now sits within a whisker of Norris again – symbolic, as Stella noted, of just how tight the intra-McLaren battle has been all season.

Russell and the midfield spice up the top 10

George Russell reminded everyone that Mercedes are still capable of gatecrashing the party. Fastest in FP3, he carried that form into qualifying, topping Q2 with a strong lap on fresh softs and briefly looking like a pole contender. In Q3 he pushed too hard through the final corner on his last attempt, sliding wide and ending up fourth, just behind the title trio.

Behind him, Charles Leclerc salvaged fifth for Ferrari on a weekend where the Scuderia have generally looked blunt. Yas Marina was the scene of their 2024 season finale double podium; this time around they’ve lacked both one-lap punch and race pace, and Hamilton’s early exit only highlighted the struggle.

Fernando Alonso continued his late-season renaissance with a superb sixth for Aston Martin, wedged in front of yet another eye-catching performance from Gabriel Bortoleto. The Brazilian rookie once again dragged his Kick Sauber into Q3 and starts seventh, right in the mix of a fascinating midfield Constructors’ battle.

Esteban Ocon’s eighth for Haas marked his first Q3 appearance since Monaco, while Isack Hadjar and Tsunoda rounded out the top 10 for Racing Bulls and Red Bull respectively. For Tsunoda, heading into a reserve role in 2026 and forced onto an old-spec floor after his FP3 clash with Kimi Antonelli, simply reaching Q3 and then playing the perfect wingman to Verstappen was a small but satisfying victory.

Q2 drama: Bearman, Sainz and Lawson fall at the second hurdle

If Q3 was about pure precision at the front, Q2 was all elbows and fractions. Verstappen, Norris, Piastri and Russell all juggled tyre usage to protect enough fresh sets for the finale, while the midfield threw everything at a top-10 berth.

Russell used his saved Q1 rubber to clock a 1m 22.730s and go fastest, with Alonso, Bortoleto and Sainz briefly right in the thick of it. As the track ramped up, the timing screens turned green and purple everywhere.

In the end, the cut was brutal. Lawson snuck to P10, briefly eliminating Antonelli, only for Hadjar to then edge out his own team mate. Ocon’s late improvement pushed Sainz down the order, and when the chequered flag fell, Ollie Bearman missed Q3 by just 0.007s in P11.

Behind him, Sainz (now in Williams colours) had to settle for 12th, Lawson 13th, Antonelli 14th and Stroll 15th – the gaps tiny, the consequences big.

Hamilton dumped out in Q1 as gaps tighten

The first chapter of this epic qualifying hour was brutal for Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari rebuilt his car after his FP3 spin, sending him out on mediums early in Q1 for a shakedown. When it came to the decisive final laps on softs, he pushed – and overstepped. A mistake at Turn 12 and a generally scruffy final effort left him stranded.

In the end, he missed the cut by just 0.008s, shoved down to 16th as Bortoleto and others improved late on. It was his third straight Q1 exit in a Grand Prix weekend, fourth if you include the Qatar Sprint – a statistic that will sting, even if the raw pace difference to Leclerc is smaller than the headlines suggest.

Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto joined Hamilton on the wrong side of the cut line in 17th to 20th. Up front, though, Q1 also delivered a big statement: Bearman briefly went fastest, Piastri sat just 0.001s behind him, and Russell then jumped them both. The top three were separated by only 0.008s at one stage – a taste of how razor-thin this session was going to be.

A complex race in store – and mind games incoming

So we end Saturday with Verstappen on pole, Norris alongside, and Piastri directly behind them. Russell lurks in fourth, promising to “race hard but fair”. The sun will set a third of the way through tomorrow’s race, track temperature will tumble, and strategy windows will widen.

Verstappen has made the first strike, but he knows that simply disappearing into the distance may not work this time. Backing Norris into Piastri, using Russell and the pack to stir trouble – all of that will surely be discussed in Red Bull’s strategy room tonight, with more than a passing nod to Hamilton’s infamous 2016 backing-up tactics against Rosberg.

For McLaren, everything is still technically in their hands. Norris just has to finish on the podium to become World Champion. Piastri must attack from the moment those five red lights go out. And somewhere in between those two agendas, a title-defining first lap is waiting to happen.

Stella called it “a complex race”. On this evidence, it’s also going to be a brutal one – and absolutely unmissable.

Qualifying Times 2025 Abu Dhabi GP

Last years pole position was won by Lando Norris in the McLaren MCL38 with a lap time of 1:22.595 min in Abu Dhabi.

✅ Don't forget to check out the 2025 Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix preview.

About the author

Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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