Norris equals Verstappen as the driver with the most poles in 2024, Hulkenberg qualifies in the top four and Bottas reaches Q3 for the second time this year. Here are the facts and statistics from qualifying at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
NORRIS ON POLE FOR THE 2024 ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX
Lando Norris secured pole position for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This was the ninth pole position of Norris’ Formula 1 career. He is the 37th driver to have taken as many as nine poles in F1. No driver has ever ended their career on exactly nine poles.
Norris recorded his eighth pole position of the season, equalling Max Verstappen as the driver who has taken the most pole positions in 2024. This is the 36th time that a driver has taken as many as eight poles in a single year.
2024 is the 11th season in which McLaren have recorded as many as eight pole positions. They last did so in 2012.
With Oscar Piastri qualifying second, McLaren recorded their first-ever Abu Dhabi Grand Prix front row lock-out.
This was the team’s 65th front row lock-out in total – their first since the 2024 Italian Grand Prix. McLaren are the third team to record as many as 65 front row lock-outs, after Ferrari (at the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix) and Mercedes (at the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix).
Both Norris and Piastri maintained their 100% Q3 appearance rate at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Piastri is yet to qualify outside of the top three here.
IN THE TOP 10
With third place, Carlos Sainz recorded his best Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying result to date.
For the seventh time in his last seven appearances at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Nico Hulkenberg qualified in the top ten.
Hulkenberg qualified in fourth place, qualifying in the top four for the first time since the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix. A three-place grid penalty drops him to seventh in the final starting order.
This was the first time Hulkenberg qualified in the top five for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Hulkenberg’s fourth place also marked the first time that a Haas driver has qualified in the top six for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen qualified in fifth place for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, making this the first time since 2019 that he did not take pole position for the Yas Marina race. It was also the first time since 2018 that Verstappen qualified outside of the top three here.
Pierre Gasly qualified sixth for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, recording his second-best qualification of the season. This was Gasly’s fourth Q3 appearance in the last six races.
This was Gasly’s best Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying result to date, having never previously qualified above tenth.
Gasly recorded the Enstone team’s best qualifying result at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since 2012, when Kimi Raikkonen qualified in fourth place.
With seventh place, George Russell qualified outside of the top six for the first time since the Belgian Grand Prix, ending a streak of three front row qualifications.
With Russell seventh and Lewis Hamilton exiting in Q1, this was the first time since 2012 that neither Mercedes driver qualified in the top six at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas reached Q3 for the second time in 2024, doing so for the first time since the Chinese Grand Prix.
Ninth place marked Bottas’ best qualifying result since qualifying eighth for the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Bottas recorded the Sauber team’s first Q3 appearance at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since 2018. This was the team’s second Q3 appearance here in the past 11 years.
Qualifying tenth for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sergio Perez reached Q3 at consecutive races for the first time since the Italian and Azerbaijan Grands Prix. The Baku race remains the last time that Perez qualified in the top eight.
Perez’s tenth place marked the worst-ever qualifying result for a Red Bull driver at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, not counting times that drivers were excluded after the qualifying session had taken place.
OUT IN Q2
Charles Leclerc exited in Q2 at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, failing to reach Q3 at Yas Marina Circuit for the first time in his career. This was the first time Leclerc failed to reach Q3 since the British Grand Prix, ending a streak of 11 top ten qualifications.
Both RB drivers were out in Q2 at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Yuki Tsunoda out-qualified Liam Lawson for a sixth consecutive Grand Prix. Tsunoda has not been out-qualified by his team-mate on any of his four Abu Dhabi Grand Prix appearances to date.
Lance Stroll exited in Q2 for the fourth consecutive season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This was the third time in the last three years that Stroll qualified 13th at Yas Marina Circuit.
Qualifying 15th for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Kevin Magnussen maintained his record of having never reached Q3 at Yas Marina Circuit in his career.
This was Magnussen’s worst qualifying result since the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix, where he also qualified 15th.
15th is Magnussen’s best qualifying result in Abu Dhabi since 2019, when he also qualified 15th.
OUT IN Q1
On his final outing with Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton was the big name to exit in Q1 at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Prior to 2023, Hamilton had never qualified outside of the top five at Yas Marina Circuit. He qualified 11th last year and only 18th in 2024.
Hamilton recorded Mercedes’ first-ever Q1 exit at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The team had failed to qualify in the top ten here only twice previously but both of those times were with Q2 eliminations.
Hamilton recorded his third Q1 exit in the last six races, having recorded his previous three Q1 exits over a period of 144 appearances.
Williams recorded their sixth double Q1 exit in the last seven years at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
With Alex Albon 16th and Franco Colapinto 19th, Williams recorded the same qualifying result at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as they did last weekend in Qatar.
This was the first time Williams recorded double Q1 exits at consecutive races since the Spanish and Austrian Grands Prix.
Albon exited in Q1 for a third consecutive race. This was the first time Albon recorded Q1 exits at three successive races since the 2022 Spanish, Monaco and Azerbaijan Grands Prix.
Zhou Guanyu qualified in 17th place for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This was the first time he has not qualified on the back row at three consecutive races since the 2023 Belgian, Dutch and Italian Grands Prix.
On his F1 debut, Jack Doohan qualified in 20th place at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This was Alpine’s first Q1 exit at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the first time that the Enstone team recorded a Q1 elimination at Yas Marina Circuit since they were under their Renault guise in 2016.
