MAX VERSTAPPEN is on pole for the Abu Dhabi GP as he bids for his 15th win of the season.
A week after ignoring team orders to help Sergio Perez, he dutifully played his role in helping the Mexican by giving him a tow down the long straight.
Perez was able to utilise the slipstream to lock out the front row and seal a second-place start on the grid.
Verstappen, who took his seventh pole of the season and the 20th of his career, said: “It was a bit of an up-and-down qualifying. It started off quite well.
“Q2 was a little bit messy. I don’t know why but on those tyres I couldn’t get the grip together.
“But then in Q3 it all felt a bit more normal.
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“We had a bit of a scare, the car turned off before the first run, so we had to reboot everything.
“Then we went out and both of the laps were good enough.
“I’m very happy that both cars are on the front row, because we want to win the race, but we also want to finish second with Checo in the championship, so that’s definitely a great start.
“I still expect it to be a good battle but at least we have both cars there and we can do what we want.”
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Perez added: “It is a good starting place. It is good to lock out that front row tomorrow.
“Max did a good job for me, we worked well as a team on that last run. I hope we can have a strong race.”
The Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will line up in third and fourth place respectively.
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Lewis Hamilton was only good enough for fifth while his teammate George Russell, who won in Brazil, was sixth-quickest.
Sebastian Vettel, who will race in his final GP tomorrow will do so from ninth on the grid, comfortably ahead of his teammate Lance Stroll, who was 14th.
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
