2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Qualifying Review

Linus O'Howell
Dec 6, 2025
2 min read

For the final time in 2025, 1-lap pace was everything as the 3-Title protagonists battled for Pole Position ahead of tomorrow’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix!

Q1

In Qualifying 1, Lewis Hamilton, Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly, and Franco Colapinto were the five slowest drivers! Lewis Hamilton’s torrid 2025 Qualifying form is only coming to an end because the season itself is ending (it’s really gotten that bad), whilst Alex Albon will be very glad to be at the final round of the year, given how much his form has dipped towards the end! Despite being less than a tenth off his teammates’ pace, Nico Hulkenberg will be very disappointed to start from 18th, whilst Alpine find themselves firmly on the back row of the grid, with Pierre Gasly once again outqualifying Franco Colapinto! Oscar Piastri absolutely smashed the rest of the field in Q1, putting nearly 3 tenths on Max Verstappen in second!

Q2

In Qualifying 2, Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz, Liam Lawson, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and Lance Stroll all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! The gaps in Q2 were absolutely insane, with both Oliver Bearman and Carlos Sainz coming within less than 1 hundredth of a second of making it into Q3 (Bearman beat Sainz by 1 thousandth of a second)! Liam Lawson wasn’t much further behind in 13th; he will start ahead of a disappointed Andrea Kimi Antonelli, whilst Lance Stroll ended up slowest in Q2 despite being less than 4 tenths off the overall fastest time in the session! That fastest time went to George Russell, with Verstappen just 22 thousandths of a second slower than the Brit!

Q3

In Qualifying 3, a special 1:22.207 was enough for Max Verstappen to take a massive Pole Position ahead of tomorrow’s Season Finale! Max did two laps that were good enough for Pole, and I’m sure he’ll be doing everything he can to end tomorrow as a 5-time World Champion! Lando Norris did what he needed to do to qualify on the Front Row, ahead of a slightly disappointed Oscar Piastri, whilst George Russell will start from P4 after a scruffy final corner! Charles Leclerc did a good job to get his Ferrari into P5, whilst Fernando Alonso pipped Gabriel Bortoleto to P6 by just 2 thousandths of a second! Esteban Ocon pulled out one of his best Qualifying performances of the season to get his Haas into 8th, ahead of the Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar, whilst Yuki Tsunoda ended up last in Q3 after failing to get a lap time on the board!