Max Verstappen reveals ‘scare’ before final run of qualifying

The two-time world champion secured his seventh pole of the season, and his third consecutive at the Yas Marina Circuit, after outpacing Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez by two-tenths. 

But Verstappen’s qualifying did not go completely smoothly, with the Dutchman suffering a problem just before his first run of Q3. 

• Verstappen beats Perez to pole for Abu Dhabi season finale

"It was a bit of an up and down qualifying. It started off quite well," said Verstappen. 

"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. 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.”

Verstappen and Perez were at the centre of a team orders row that erupted at last weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, but the pair insist they have put the incident behind them. 

Perez will start one place ahead of Charles Leclerc, who is fighting to secure second place in the F1 drivers’ standings. 

And Verstappen said he is keen to help Perez seal runner-up spot in the championship. 

"I’m very happy that both cars are on the front row, because of course 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 before tomorrow,” he added. 

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