Max Verstappen to start title decider in pole position

Max Verstappen will start from the front of the grid in Sunday's World Championship decider after securing pole position at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.Title rival Lewis Hamilton will start second on the grid.

There was almost nothing to separate Hamilton and Verstappen in the first round of qualifying, the former leading the way just 0.056 seconds clear of his title rival.

The session was temporarily halted as Mick Schumacher clipped a bollard in his Haas, dislodging the object before it was caught by the McLaren of Lando Norris, bringing out the red flag.

Once the session resumed, Hamilton put in a blistering time to show his superiority, clocking a time of one minute 22.845 seconds, almost half a second faster than Verstappen.

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Kimi Raikkonen was eliminated at the end of first qualifying in his final race weekend, with the Williams duo of Nicholas Latifi and George Russell and the Haas pair of Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin also dropping out.

Just to underpin his advantage, Hamilton was just 0.300 seconds slower than Verstappen in the second qualifying session despite running on the slower, medium compound tyre.

Verstappen went fastest with a lap of one minute 22.800 seconds as he and team-mate Perez ran on the soft tyres and will start Sunday’s race on them.

Hamilton was third behind the Red Bull duo as the cars had to vie for position on track to set their last time of the session — with Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll, Antonio Giovinazzi and Sebastian Vettel eliminated.

Verstappen, however, would come flying back — the Dutchman clinching pole position with a fine lap.

With a tow in the slipsteam of Perez, Verstappen set an unassailable time of one minute 22.109 to clinch what could prove to be the most important pole of his career.

Hamilton will at least start second, clocking a time 0.371 seconds slower as the title protagonists locked out the front row.

Norris put in a fine display to qualify third for McLaren as Perez went fourth fastest in the second Red Bull.

“It is an amazing feeling,” said Verstappen.

“We definitely improved the car again in qualifying, so far this weekend it has been on and off but I’m incredibly happy with this. It is never easy, especially with their form in the past few races.”

Hamilton, meanwhile, admitted he had no answer to Verstappen’s fastest effort.

“Max did a great lap today so we just couldn’t compete with that time at the end,” he said.

“It was looking really strong in practice. We couldn’t answer that lap, it was a fantastic lap from him but we are in a good position, I think, with our tyres tomorrow.

“I couldn’t beat that time he did today and he fully deserved the pole. I’m grateful I can see where he is!”