Verstappen explains qualifying scare after sealing "messy" pole

Max Verstappen has described his qualifying session as "messy" after surviving a reliability scare to secure pole position in Abu Dhabi.

The Dutchman scored his seventh pole of the season to lead a Red Bull one-two at the Yas Marina Circuit.

But the session was far from simple with Verstappen's Red Bull requiring a full system reboot at the start of the final session.

"It was a bit of an up-and-down qualifying," said Verstappen.

"It started off quite well but Q2 was a little bit messier. I don't know why but with that tyre set I just couldn't get the grip together.

"But then in Q3 it all felt a bit more normal and 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 so I'm very pleased with that but I'm also very happy that both cars are on the front row because we know that we want to win the race but we also want to finish second with Checo in the championship.

"That's definitely a great start for tomorrow."

Red Bull is focused on ensuring a first one-two result for the team in the drivers' standings.

Sergio Perez starts the race level with Charles Leclerc but when it was suggested that the race is perfectly poised for him to further aid his team-mate, Verstappen added: "It always sounds great.

"For sure today was amazing. I still expect it to be a good battle tomorrow but at least we have both cars there and we can do what we want."

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