Max Verstappen secures pole position for the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo rounded off the top 10 in qualifying.

In the final qualifying session of his F1 career, Vettel finished in ninth place after making it into Q3 with a mega effort from the four-time world champion. Daniel Ricciardo, Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi will also be absent from the 2023 grid, and they qualified P10, P13, and P20 respectively.

As it happened

In Q1, Yuki Tsunoda immediately set the standard of the slower runners, leading the way following the first set of laps from the AlphaTauri, Haas, Aston Martin and Williams cars. However, once the big boys got involved he was soon knocked off top spot by Charles Leclerc, who set a 1:25.211 lap time on his first flying lap of Q1. The Ferrari driver was soon bested by the Red Bull drivers, with Sergio Perez putting in a 1:24.820 lap time on his opening Q1 attempt, which was bettered by 0.066 seconds by his teammate Max Verstappen.

Despite securing a 1-2 finish last time out at Interlagos, following an impressive qualifying stint, Mercedes looked off the pace, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton both eight tenths off Verstappen's opening Q1 lap. 

With 2 minutes to go, drivers began their second and final flying laps, with Vettel needing an improvement in order to reach Q2 in his final qualifying session in F1. The German went green in every sector of his final lap to go fifth fastest, despite hitting traffic in the final sector. With track conditions improving and the pace ramping up, every driver began to set personal best laps, including Zhou Guanyu, who made it into Q2 unlike teammate Valtteri Bottas who disappointingly exited qualifying at the first stage in Abu Dhabi complaining of tyre temperature.. Fernando Alonso narrowly got through qualifying, finishing in 15th place in Q1, less than one tenth of a second quicker than Kevin Magnussen.

Only six tenths separated Vettel in P6 and Latifi in P20 during a tightly-contested Q1.

ELIMINATED IN Q1 - Magnussen, Gasly, Bottas, Albon, Latifi

Track temperature continued to fall in Q2, with Mercedes putting on a used set of soft tyres at the start of the second qualifying session while the rest of the grid waited in the pits before emerging a few minutes later in the session.

Lewis Hamilton complained about a brake issue on his first out lap of Q2 before setting a 1:25.772 lap time in the opening lap of the session, which was beaten by teammate George Russell by four tenths on his first lap of Q2.

McLaren's Lando Norris then set a purple first sector before it was beaten by later runners. The Brit showed pace throughout qualifying and his first Q2 lap was good enough for P2 before the Red Bull drivers blew the field out of the water by going into the 1:24's. Sergio Perez was four tenths quicker than Verstappen on the first run of Q2 and ended the session ahead of the Dutchman.

Mercedes and Ferrari then put on a fresh set of tyres to try and put their name in the hat to top Q2, but were unsuccessful with Hamilton and Russell ending the second qualifying session in P5 and P7 respectively, while Leclerc was second and Carlos Sainz was third, both ahead of Verstappen.

ELIMINATED IN Q2 - Alonso, Tsunoda, Schumacher, Stroll, Zhou

Just as they did in Q2, Mercedes headed out onto the track earlier than the rest of the field, out of sync with both Red Bull and Ferrari. As a result, they both set their flying laps at the beginning of qualifying, with just 0.016 seconds separating Hamilton and Russell. 

However, Leclerc then went onto provisional pole before it was bettered by his Ferrari teammate Sainz. A mistake on the final corner denied Perez provisional pole position, with the Mexican in a Ferrari sandwich. His Red Bull teammate Verstappen then hit top form and set a 1:23.988 to go three tenths clear of Sainz in P2.

Aston Martin then made the decision to only send out Vettel on one run in Q3, with the team said to be keen to avoid the German being blocked by a Red Bull driver for a third time in qualifying. His lap was good enough for P7, but dropped to ninth by the end of qualifying.

Verstappen gave Perez a slipstream on their final lap in an attempt to help the Mexican in his battle with Leclerc in the championship, with the pair ending qualifying in P1 and P2 ahead of the Ferrari pair.