Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Saturday: Teams & Drivers report from Yas Marina

McLaren's Lando Norris leads the Drivers' Standings with just the one round remaining. He has a steady 12 points advantage over nearest rival Max Verstappen, who is in turn four points ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

Verstappen turned up the wick during Qualifying, claiming pole position with a time over two tenths of a second faster than anyone else on the Yas Marina Circuit.

However, Norris will start alongside the defending Champion on the front row of the grid, while Piastri will be slightly disappointed to be slowest of the trio in P3. Russell clinched the other spot on the second row of the grid.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc will occupy the fifth place on the grid, which was good considering the fact that his teammate Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in Q1 for the third Grand Prix in succession.

Fernando Alonso, Gabriel Bortoleto, Esteban Ocon, Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda round out the top ten positions.

Here's what the teams and drivers had to say after an exciting Qualifying session at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Lando Norris: “We did everything we could do today, but just didn't have the pace in the car for Pole. I was happy with my lap, but I'm of course disappointed to not be on Pole for the final weekend of the year. For tomorrow, we'll focus on doing the best we can. As always, I want to win the race, so that's the goal.”

Oscar Piastri: “I felt like we maximised what we could today. I was happy with my Q3 laps; we just didn't quite have the pace to answer Max. Our long run pace looks okay, so let's see what we can do tomorrow. I'll focus on delivering the best race I can, and we'll see what happens.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal: “The final Qualifying session of the year is symbolic of the close displays we’ve seen from Lando and Oscar throughout the season. Overall, we can be reasonably happy with our performances as the drivers extracted everything from the car in what was an extremely tight session.

“We’re now in a strong position to fight for the Championship tomorrow. We are aware that we’re not alone with very competitive drivers starting beside us on the first and second row. However, as a team, it is in our hands. We will make sure we maintain this strong position and execute our preparation at the highest level to be in condition to ensure the reward goes to a papaya driver at the Chequered Flag.”

George Russell: "We were near the top of the timing screens in both Q1 and Q2, but we knew that Verstappen and the two McLarens had more pace to show come Q3. That turned out to be the case, and I think P4 was ultimately us maximising the package we had this evening. Q3 didn't go too smoothly on our side but I don't think we were ever in the fight for the front-row.

"Tomorrow's race will be interesting with the three title contenders starting ahead of us. On ultimate pace, I don't believe that our race is with them but there could be some strategic implications of that battle that open opportunities for us. We will be considering every eventuality that can help us gain positions and ultimately bring home the points we need to secure P2 in the Constructors' Championship. That is our only focus for tomorrow and, if we can do that, we can end the season on a high."

Kimi Antonelli: "Qualifying started well in Q1. I was happy with the balance of the car and was able to extract a decent lap time out of it. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case in Q2, and we were knocked out in what was a very tight session. That was a shame as I think we had the pace to be starting in the top six for tomorrow's race.

"Despite tonight's disappointment, we will refocus now for Sunday's race. We will do our best to get back into the points and secure P2 in the Constructors' Championship for the team. Every point could be crucial so that is what my full focus is on. It is important for all of us that we achieve that and end the season on a positive note. Hopefully we can do that and I can end my rookie season in F1 on a high."

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: "Qualifying didn't go quite the way we wanted today. P4 is an OK position to start but obviously P14 is less so. The car has been on a bit of a knife's edge this weekend. At moments we've had good performance, but it's been difficult to extract consistently. We saw that this evening where we topped Q2 but also had one car fail to make it through. The narrow gaps between all cars also meant that any small mistake was punished heavily.

"Despite having the three drivers who will be fighting for the title in front of him tomorrow, I am sure George will just be focused on driving his own race. He will be looking to end his season on a high and hopefully he can do that by getting on the podium. That will be the same with Kimi even though it will be a challenge for him to fight back into the major points-scoring positions. Let's see how it all plays out though, and we will be ready to take advantage of any opportunities that come our way."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: "The session was a bit of a disappointment considering that we'd shown good pace earlier today and in the opening stages of qualifying. George was the only car to get through Q1 on a single new set of Soft tyres and Kimi's second push lap put him P3. For Kimi though, his session began it to unravel in Q2. We didn't change anything in our approach, but he started to get the odd snap which in turn caused high temperatures and compounded these issues. Unfortunately, he couldn't reproduce his Q1 pace and finished the session in P14.

"George was quickest in Q2, once again on a single new set of Soft tyres but then had similar issues with a loss of rear grip in Q3. With the pace of Verstappen in the Red Bull and the two McLarens, P4 wasn't a bad result. It was slightly frustrating given what we had seen earlier but if we have good race pace tomorrow, we can still score good points with both cars. That is our sole focus as we look to bring home P2 in the Constructors' Championship."

Max Verstappen: “It was a Simply Lovely Qualifying. We did well the whole weekend, have been fine tuning the car and then also made some final changes which helped the car a little bit. This allowed me to push a bit more to the limit and extract the most out of the car. We were improving nicely in Qualifying and then found a little bit more lap time with the corners. The big question mark is can we keep up that pace in the race? Thank you to Yuki for the tow, it helped for sure, but it was nice of him to give up one of his laps. He was a great Team player, so thank you for that. Tomorrow, the plan is to win the race and then we need a bit of luck to win the Championship, it’s as simple as that. We will go all out and have nothing to lose, whether we need to attack or defend. The most important battle needs to happen tomorrow and we need to outscore them by 12 points; we knew that if we wanted to be in the fight we had to be first. I have the least to lose and I am very relaxed. It is exciting to be on Pole, but we just need a bit of luck for the rest of it and some Abu Dhabi magic.”

Yuki Tsunoda: "Because of the pitlane incident in FP3, we had to change back to the old floor on my car, which did compromise performance somewhat and was not ideal. I knew it could be difficult to get through to Q3 but I was able to do that. I have been able to help Max and that was always the aim, I am proud of that today. I will try to support Max as much as possible tomorrow, that is my goal and my main focus. It might not be a straightforward strategy but if I can help Max to win a fifth Drivers’ Championship, then that is the priority. The top 10 looks very tight, so let’s see what I can do.”

Laurent Mekies, CEO and Team Principal: "It really was an amazing job from everyone today, from Max, Yuki and the Team. Max could've taken pole on both his runs today he was that quick. We weren't the fastest on track yesterday, but the car has really improved with each session to get into a great condition for Quali this evening. Well done to everyone for having nailed the right window of the car which allowed us to extract everything from it. We managed to get both cars into Q3 which is great and Yuki did an excellent job on the first run with the tow he gave Max. Of course, there are no points on Saturday here, but we've given ourselves an opportunity to give it our all. Our full concentration and focus turns to maximising everything we can from the car tomorrow, because we cannot control what happens behind us. Everyone here and in Milton Keynes has worked hard to be in this position, fighting for titles to the very end, so it is a privileged position to be in. Whatever happens tomorrow, it has been a sensational end to the year for us."

Charles Leclerc: "I’m satisfied with my lap in Q3 and I don’t think there was much more to extract today. I feel that our team has done a really good job in turning things around this weekend. We made some changes on the set-up between FP2 and FP3, and if paid off. I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow, to see if the changes we made will also help us to get ahead in the race. We can’t get our hopes up too high, because the cars ahead are very fast. It’s up to us to maximise our result tomorrow, and I’ll do my best to take action at the start and hope to bring home a last podium for our whole team this season."

Lewis Hamilton: "Clearly it wasn’t the result we were aiming for today. The team did a great job after FP3, in getting the car ready in time for qualifying, but a mistake in the last sector cost us. I know this track well and I’ll be aiming to deliver a more positive result for the team tomorrow."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: "Overall, we are happy with Charles’ result, as we had a very tough time in both Friday sessions and when it came to deciding on today’s set-up we were quite aggressive and it paid off. For sure, if practice had been better then maybe we could have fought for an even better position, but it is what it is. Now, let’s see what happens tomorrow, let’s see what our race pace is like. It’s been difficult for Lewis, because he did not drive in FP1, having given up his seat to Arthur, and then came the crash halfway through FP3 and in this kind of situation where there are only two tenths separating P4 and P18 if you miss so much running, it’s too much to recover from. You can’t produce a performance based just on FP2. Now let's focus on how to do the best possible for our team to get the best result to end the season well."

Carlos Sainz: "I’m relatively happy with where we are today, as we made a good step from the practice sessions. It was one of the tightest sessions I remember, with only one tenth separating P6-P15 in Q2, and I unfortunately fell short by 0.008 of a second. For tomorrow, it’s looking to be on the limit between a one and a two-stop race, which can result in interesting strategies. I’m confident we can fight to make our way into the points, and the aim is to finish off the 2025 season strong!"

Alex Albon: "Difficult session. We couldn’t get the tyres in the right window and hit traffic in the final sector of the lap. There were a few small details which I couldn’t quite nail and, with such a tight field, every millisecond counts. Strategy will make a big difference in the race tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how each team approaches it. Tomorrow will be tough, but we’ll look to take advantage of any opportunities that come our way."

James Vowles, Team Principal: "First of all, congratulations to Max. Really impressive laps out there and he was dominant through sector 3. Speaking of which, that was the sector we couldn't quite get right today. The gaps were miniscule. Just a handful of milliseconds separated five cars but that is the state of the sport today and it's brilliant – it is really the highest level of competition we have ever seen, and you have to get absolutely everything perfect. In the case of Carlos today, he was strong everywhere, we just need to review what else we can do to get more performance out of sector 3. With Alex, when the field is this tight, just a tenth punishes you, but he is competitive and I'm confident we can come back fighting tomorrow. These races are unpredictable and we're in the best seat in the house to see what happens on race day."

Lance Stroll: "It was a super tight Qualifying today and we were looking good for Q3, but missed it in the end by less than one tenth.

"I had a bit of a messy Turn 14 and lost time there on my final push lap in Q2 so that's where it got away from us.

"When it's that tight, a small margin makes a big difference so a good effort today, but we would have hoped for a bit more."

"Free Practice Two was difficult for us. The car wasn't in the window, and the team did a lot of changes overnight. In Free Practice Three and Qualifying it was much better.

"We were brave with the setup, the team never stopped pushing, and we got a very nice result. So a happy Saturday and we hope for a happy Sunday."

Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer: "It was an exceptionally close field today in the Qualifying session.

"Lance progressed into Q2, delivering a series of clean laps and narrowly missing out on a spot in Q3 by less than a tenth of a second.

"Fernando, meanwhile, advanced to Q3 and put in a strong performance to secure P6. We hope this puts us in a good position to score points in the final race of the season tomorrow – we will aim to maximise every opportunity."

Ollie Bearman: “It’s a shame to miss out, but it was a very tight session and every millisecond counted out there tonight. Ultimately, I had a bit of an interrupted qualifying, being on a used set for my first run in Q2, then, as a result, it was a big jump to go onto the new set. The car has the pace, but I just didn’t quite put the lap together. I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow as I think there will be some opportunities, and generally the car has been quick all weekend.”

Esteban Ocon: “I’m super happy – delighted to say the least. It was honestly the lowest moment of the season yesterday, it was really a bad feeling being half a second away from where we should be. We were lost and changed everything on the car overnight, and the car today feels much better. It’s transformed, and we’re suddenly where we should be, so a big thanks to the team for their continual support. In the tough times, we’ve stuck together, and that makes the difference. It’s a bit late, so there are some regrets there as we could’ve had a lot more points, but we’ll take today, review things, and hopefully it's a good foundation for next year. It’s all to play for tomorrow, we start from the points, and hopefully we convert that.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: “I’m very happy to get Esteban back up there in qualifying today. He was the best part of half a second off it yesterday, without any obvious issues. Overnight, we made set-up changes to the car, and that worked very well straight away. That was very pleasing and gives the team confidence, and of course it gives lots of confidence to Esteban as well. In Q1, we operated well – using two new sets of tires with Esteban – and although we knew there was a chance of only needing one set with Ollie, the margin was too tight to park it.

"In Q2, Esteban did a great job. Ollie’s reference wasn’t a new tire because he kept two new sets of medium tires for the race, which meant he’d have one less set for Q2. He missed getting into Q3 by seven thousandths of a second, and the frustrating thing is you could see the loss in a straight line, so we’re looking into that.

"Esteban in Q3 – using one set of used and one set of new softs – did a very good job. It’s very difficult around here to put a perfect lap together, so for us to be frustrated about losing P6 by one hundredth, but being where we were yesterday, we’ve come a long way. The potential is high with this car, and what Ollie has felt all weekend is very good. Tomorrow, we need to get a good start, focus on ourselves, race hard and do the best we can. What will happen, will happen, but I don’t think we can be too hung up on the result, we just need to concentrate on our own race.”

Pierre Gasly: “We did a great job overnight to improve the car and it felt like we made a good step from yesterday. The car was set-up well but today's result is, quite honestly, just a reflection of our performance at this track. It was a very tight Qualifying throughout and we have been on the wrong end of a tenth or two to our competitors across the weekend so far. We had to go for it on the final run on Softs as we had the lap time deletion for track limits on my first run. I was very happy with my final lap, all the corners came together and that was really all we had in our hands. We have the final race of the season tomorrow. It is also the final race with our colleagues from Viry on the power unit side. I am very grateful for everything they have done especially in my Alpine career. We will give it our all for them and see what result we come out with at the end.”

Franco Colapinto: “The difficulties of yesterday carried over to today unfortunately. I think Pierre found more pace and did a better job than me. We made some changes which made a difference, but I still didn't feel totally comfortable. I felt in a decent place at the start of the weekend, and we need to understand why we haven't been able to make the same improvements across the weekend as others did. We put a lot of pressure on our final lap due to track limits, which was my own doing. There are a few places around the lap where you're right on the limit, and the margins are so tight, you have to push or risk losing time. We need to work hard overnight and give it our best tomorrow. It's an important day for everyone at the team at the final race for Viry, so we'll give it our all to try and give them a nice result.”