Verstappen hails 'lucky lap' pole to end season of frustration

Max Verstappen admitted he was “lucky everything came together” after he set a scintillating lap to secure the first non-Mercedes-powered pole of the season for Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Verstappen had set the fastest time in final practice but looked set to be beaten by Mercedes’ Valterri Bottas until he pulled out what team boss Christian Horner described as an “awesome” lap to claim pole by just 0.025 seconds.

Verstappen said: “I said before qualifying it’s going to be the final send of the season, and we did that. I’m very happy about that.

“It was quite a tricky qualifying to get the lap together. There are so many corners where you can make a mistake but luckily everything came together in that final lap.

“It’s a long season for everyone, especially a lot of races in a row, so I think this was a good final qualifying for everyone in the team. The whole year when you’re behind getting closer it gets frustrating but very pleased with today.”

Verstappen will have two Mercedes breathing down his neck at the start, as Bottas will line up second and Lewis Hamilton third, but he is hopeful he will have the straight-line advantage to keep them at bay.

He added: “I don’t think we did a lot of laps, everyone, so we have to wait and see how that goes. We will try to do our best to try to keep them behind.

"They are still very fast but it seems we have a decent top speed so hopefully that will work out for tomorrow.”

Speaking from the pit wall, Horner praised his driver for putting everything together on the final run and added: “Very well deserved for Max, he’s threaded it together and nailed an amazing lap at the end.

“He’s just made it happen himself. He’s the second-fastest in the third split, third in the second, and the third he just put his lap together.

"It’s been a long season on Saturday afternoons, but to finish the season on pole, we’ve just got to convert it now.“

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