Norris is Yas Marina’s latest winner, Verstappen won four races from pole in a row from 2020 to 2023 and only McLaren’s drivers hold a 100% Q3 appearance record at the track. Here’s everything you need to know about each driver’s history at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix!
🇳🇱 Max VERSTAPPEN
Max Verstappen won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from pole position for four consecutive seasons from 2020 to 2023. His sixth place finish in 2024 put an end to that streak and was the first time he did not finish on the Yas Marina podium since 2017 – as well as the first time he finished outside of the top five at the track since his first appearance with Toro Rosso in 2015.
Verstappen has a 100% finish rate at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with 2015, when he finished 16th, being his only non-points scoring appearance at the track.
Verstappen has reached Q3 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in all of the last nine seasons, qualifying in the top six each time. Verstappen did not out-qualify a team-mate here until 2019, but is yet to be beaten on Saturday since then.
2024 was the first time that he did not start on the front row at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since 2018. His 2019 front row start came courtesy of a grid penalty for Valtteri Bottas.
MAX VERSTAPPEN’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇦🇺 Liam LAWSON
Though he did make an appearance with Red Bull in Free Practice 1 at Yas Marina Circuit in 2022, Liam Lawson’s first Abu Dhabi Grand Prix start was with RB in 2024. He qualified in 12th, one position behind his team-mate and gained two places from where he started at the beginning of the race, thanks to spins for Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri.
A botched pit stop – where he left the garage with a loose wheel – dented any hopes Lawson had of scoring points, with a penalty for the incident dropping him to the back of the field. His race ended with brake problems on the penultimate lap, ultimately being classified in a lowly 17th place.
Lawson raced at Yas Marina Circuit in F2 in both 2021 and 2022. He scored podium finishes in both races at the track in 2022, winning the Sprint and finishing third in the Feature.
LIAM LAWSON’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇬🇧 Lando NORRIS
Lando Norris won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the first time in 2024. He dominated the race, leading every lap having started from pole position.
Norris has scored points on all six appearances so far at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He finished eighth in 2019, before bettering that with a fifth place finish in 2020. In 2021, he came home in seventh place and he finished sixth in 2022 before recording another top five result one year later.
Norris has a 100% Q3 record at Yas Marina Circuit. Prior to his pole position in 2024, he had qualified on the the second row twice, lining up fourth in 2020 and third in 2021. 2023 marked the first time that he was out-qualified by a team-mate at the track.
Before F1, Norris made his F2 debut at Yas Marina Circuit in 2017, making a one-off appearance before joining the series full time in 2018. That year, he finished fifth in the Feature Race and finished as runner-up on his final F2 appearance in the Sprint Race.
LANDO NORRIS’ ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇦🇺 Oscar PIASTRI
Oscar Piastri finished sixth on his first Abu Dhabi Grand Prix appearance in 2023. He finished one position behind his team-mate, having out-qualified Lando Norris the previous day and lined up third on the grid.
Piastri was unable to beat his team-mate to pole position for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but dd complete a front row lock-out for McLaren. His race unravelled at Turn 1 when he was hit and spun by Max Verstappen. Running last, he then made contact with Franco Colapinto, which earned him a 10-second time penalty. From there, Piastri made up positions to secure a single point with a tenth place finish.
Piastri previously raced at Yas Marina Circuit in the 2016-17 Formula 4 UAE Championship, in Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019 and in Formula 2 in 2021. Piastri has taken two wins in Abu Dhabi – one in 2019 and the other in F2, in the 2021 Feature Race. He also finished on the podium in the first Sprint Race that weekend.
OSCAR PIASTRI’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇬🇧 Lewis HAMILTON
In 2022, Lewis Hamilton failed to finish the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It marked the first time he failed to finish on the podium at Yas Marina Circuit since 2013, as well as his first retirement at the track since 2012. With ninth place in 2023 and fourth on his last appearance with Mercedes in 2024, his runner-up spot in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – a race in which he was overtaken for victory and the title win on the final lap – remains his last podium finish here.
Hamilton has been victorious in Abu Dhabi five times, while his third place in 2020 is his only other non top two finish at Yas Marina Circuit since 2013. His retirements here in 2009, 2012 and 2022 are the only times that he has not picked up points at the track, with his seventh place in 2013, ninth in 2023 and fourth in 2024 are the only other times he has not finished on the podium.
Hamilton has a highly impressive qualifying record here, with five poles – though he has failed to reach Q3 in each of the last two seasons, recording his first Q1 exit at Yas Marina Circuit in 2024. The last three seasons are the only ones in which Hamilton has qualified outside of the top four places at the track. Aside from the last three years, a fourth place qualification in 2013 and a third place qualification in 2020 are the only times that Hamilton has not started from the front row at the track.
Given his high starting positions, it’s unsurprising that 2023 was the first time that Hamilton gained more than one position from where he started at the track. After his Q1 exit in 2024, he gained 12 positions over the course of the race – including overtaking his Mercedes team-mate George Russell on the final lap – in a drive which saw him voted Driver of the Day.
From 2009 to 2021, 2010, 2013 and 2020 were the only years in which Hamilton did not led at least three laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
LEWIS HAMILTON’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇲🇨 Charles LECLERC
2020 marks the only time that Charles Leclerc has failed to score at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in his seven appearances at Yas Marina Circuit. He finished seventh for Sauber in 2018, before going on to finish third for Ferrari in 2019. After a tenth place finish in 2021, he recorded his best result to date at the track in 2022, finishing as runner-up. He finished as runner-up for a second consecutive year at the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and recorded a third successive podium finish in 2024.
2024 was the first time that Leclerc failed to qualify in the top ten on his seven outings here, exiting in Q2 and qualifying only 14th before then being demoted to the back of the grid. His best qualifying result here is second, in 2023. That marked Ferrari’s first-ever front row start at Yas Marina Circuit.
2021 was the first time Leclerc was out-qualified by a team-mate at the track. Carlos Sainz out-qualified him again in 2024.
Leclerc gained 16 positions over the course of the 2024 race to rise from 16th on the grid to a podium finish. It was the first time he gained more than one position from where he had started at the track.
Before reaching F1, Leclerc raced at the Yas Marina Circuit in both GP3 and F2. In 2017, he took podium finishes in both the Feature and Sprint races on his last F2 appearances, standing on the top step of the podium after the Sprint race.
CHARLES LECLERC’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇬🇧 George RUSSELL
George Russell finished on the podium at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the first time in 2023, finishing in third place. He finished in fifth place in 2022, picking up points at Yas Marina Circuit for the first time, having never previously finished above 15th place at the track. He recorded another top five finish at the track in 2024.
On his final appearance with Williams, in 2021, Russell retired from the race. It’s his only retirement so far at the venue.
Russell’s sixth place in qualifying in 2022 was the first time he has progressed past Q1 at the track. He bettered that result in 2023, qualifying fourth and reached Q3 for a third successive season in 2024. 2021 was a rare occasion on which Russell was out-qualified by a team-mate while at Williams and he was out-qualified by Lewis Hamilton in 2022.
Russell has gained a single position from where he has started on all five occasions that he has reached the chequered flag at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Prior to F1, in the four races in which he contested at the Yas Marina Circuit, Russell never finished below fourth. He finished as runner up in the first GP3 race of the 2017 weekend at the track, a weekend on which he also partook in Free Practice 1 with Force India. In 2018, Russell secured the F2 title at the circuit with a win in the Feature Race. He went on to finish fourth in the Sprint Race on his final F2 appearance.
GEORGE RUSSELL’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇮🇹 Kimi ANTONELLI
This will be Kimi Antonelli’s first appearance at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – though he has raced at Yas Marina Circuit before. In 2021, he took part in a non-championship ‘Trophy Round’ of the F4 UAE Championship, which was run as a support event on the Grand Prix weekend. He took pole position for that race and finished third. In 2022, in the same championship, he won on his first two championship appearances before recording further podium results in the third and fourth races.
Antonelli was due to make his final Formula 2 appearances at Yas Marina Circuit in 2024. After qualifying 11th, he withdrew from the races due to illness.
🇪🇸 Fernando ALONSO
Until 2022, Fernando Alonso held a 100% finish rate at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He had scored points on eight of his 11 appearances prior to 2022. After a DNF on his final appearance with Alpine, Alonso returned to the points in the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with a seventh place finish – his best result at the track in a decade. His best result here overall is second, which is where he finished in both 2011 and 2012.
Alonso has reached Q3 at the track seven times, has been eliminated in Q2 five times and exited in Q1 twice. Seventh in qualifying for the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ended a streak of four consecutive Q2 exits at the venue, three of which were 11th place qualifications. His seventh place in qualifying for the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix marked his best Saturday result at the track since 2012, while third place in 2010 is his best qualifying result to date at the track.
The 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in which he lost the title to Sebastian Vettel, is the only race at the circuit in which Alonso has lost more than one position from where he has started. Alonso has led only three laps here, doing so in 2011. Alonso made a hospital visit in 2013 after bouncing over the track’s kerbs at 150mph, suffering a 25G impact.
FERNANDO ALONSO’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇨🇦 Lance STROLL
Finishing in tenth place, Lance Stroll scored at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the first time in 2020. He bettered that result with eighth place in 2022 and scored for a third time with another tenth place finish in 2023. Stroll failed to finish the race in 2019; which is his only retirement so far at Yas Marina Circuit.
2020 is the only time that Stroll has reached Q3 at Yas Marina Circuit, qualifying in eighth position, while 2018 is the only year that Stroll has exited in Q1 at the track. He has exited in Q2 in all of the last four seasons. Stroll has out-qualified his team-mate twice at the venue, in 2020 and 2021.
Stroll has gained positions from where he has started at Yas Marina Circuit three times – in 2018, when he gained seven places, in 2022, when he gained six places and in 2023, when he moved up three positions from where he started.
LANCE STROLL’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇫🇷 Pierre GASLY
With fifth place, Pierre Gasly recorded his best Abu Dhabi Grand Prix result to date in 2021. It’s one of only three times that the Frenchman has picked up points from his eight appearances at the circuit, with his seventh place finish in 2024 marking his first points-scoring result since then. He also finished eighth in 2020. Gasly recorded his only retirement at the track in 2018.
In 2024, Gasly qualified sixth for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It was only his third Q3 appearance at the track and marked the first time he qualified above tenth, having done so in 2020 and 2023.
He has been eliminated in Q1 three times in total, qualifying in 17th each time. He did so on his first two appearances here in 2017 and 2018 and recorded his most recent Q1 exit in 2022. He exited in Q2 and qualified 12th in both 2019 and 2021.
Last year, Gasly out-qualified his team-mate for the second year in a row, having been out-qualified in all of the previous three seasons.
PIERRE GASLY’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇦🇺 Jack DOOHAN
Jack Doohan made his Formula 1 debut with Alpine at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After qualifying last, Doohan started 17th on the grid as a result of penalties for other drivers. He went on to finish the race in 15th place.
Doohan previously raced at Yas Marina Circuit in the F3 Asian Championship and in Formula 2. His last outing here – the F2 Feature Race in 2023 – saw him stand on the top step of the podium, having started from pole position. That was his only top five result in his seven F2 outings at the circuit. Doohan appeared in Free Practice 1 at the track with Alpine at the 2022 and 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekends.
JACK DOOHAN’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇫🇷 Esteban OCON
This will be Esteban Ocon’s first appearance at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since 2023. In 2024, he did not race at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on what was to be his final outing with Alpine. His seat was instead taken by rookie Jack Doohan.
From seven appearances at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon has scored points four times. He finished eighth in 2017 with Force India, ninth in 2020 & 2021 and recorded his best result here to date in 2022, with seventh place. 2023 marked the first time Ocon failed to score at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since 2018.
The 2018 race – his final appearance before his year out of the sport – is the only time that Ocon has failed to reach the end of the race at Yas Marina Circuit.
Ocon has reached Q3 at Yas Marina Circuit four times, qualifying in ninth place on three of those occasions. He set his best qualifying result at the circuit to date in 2022, with eighth place. Ocon just missed out on Q3 in 2020, qualifying in 11th. 2023 was the first time that Ocon was out-qualified by a team-mate at the circuit since 2017.
ESTEBAN OCON’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇬🇧 Ollie BEARMAN
Ollie Bearman raced at Yas Marina Circuit in Formula 2 in both 2023 and 2024. He finished in the top five in both the Sprint Race and the Feature Race in 2024, but did not finish on the podium in either race. Bearman has past F1 weekend experience here too, having driven with Haas in Free Practice 1 at the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
🇯🇵 Yuki TSUNODA
Yas Marina Circuit has been a good track for Yuki Tsunoda so far in Formula 1. Tsunoda recorded the best result of his rookie season at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, coming home in fourth place. He failed to finish in the points in 2022 but came home in 11th place. In 2023, Tsunoda led multiple laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on his way to an eighth place finish. He failed to pick up a point in 2024, with 12th place marking his worst result at the circuit to date.
Tsunoda has out-qualified his team-mate on all four previous outings at Yas Marina Circuit, reaching Q3 with an eighth place qualification in 2021 and bettering that result with sixth place in 2023. He was eliminated in Q2 in both 2022 and 2024 but is yet to qualify below 12th place.
YUKI TSUNODA’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇫🇷 Isack HADJAR
Isack Hadjar has past racing experience at Yas Marina Circuit, having raced here in the F4 UAE Championship and Formula 2. His F2 outings yielded no podium finishes, though he recorded fifth place finishes in both the 2023 and 2024 Sprint Races. His 2024 Feature Race – his final F2 appearance – came to a disappointing end when, whilst in contention for the title, a problem at the start saw him drop to the back of the order.
Hadjar has past F1 experience at the track too. He made Free Practice 1 outings with Red Bull at the 2023 and 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekends.
🇪🇸 Carlos SAINZ
Carlos Sainz finished on the podium at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with a third place finish. In 2024, he finished on the Yas Marina podium for a second time, this time finishing as runner-up. His first podium result at the track came amidst a run of five consecutive points-scoring appearances at Yas Marina Circuit, from 2018 to 2022.
Sainz’s points-scoring streak at the track came to an end in 2023 as he retired in the closing stages of the race and was classified only 18th. He also failed to score on his first three appearances here. He came home 11th in 2015, before recording successive DNFs in 2016 and 2017.
Sainz failed to reach Q3 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2023 for the first time since 2018, recording his first Q1 exit at the track since 2016. His best qualifying result here is third, which he recorded in 2024. Sainz has out-qualified his team-mate here only three times: in his maiden season in 2015, in 2021 and in 2024.
CARLOS SAINZ’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇹🇭 Alex ALBON
Alex Albon finished in the top six on both of his appearances at Yas Marina Circuit with Red Bull, with a best result of fourth in 2020. He’s yet to score a point here with Williams, having finished 13th in 2022, 14th in 2023 and 11th in 2024.
Albon also qualified in the top six on both outings with Red Bull, but qualified on the back row in 2022. He reached Q2 in 2023, qualifying 14th before recording a second Q1 exit at the track in 2024. Albon has out-qualified his team-mate in Abu Dhabi in each of the last three seasons.
Albon previously raced at Yas Marina Circuit in both GP3 and F2. He retired from both GP3 races here in 2016, suffering a huge crash in the second race. Albon’s best result so far here came in F2 in 2017, where he finished as runner-up in the Sprint Race. In 2018, in F2, he finished 14th in the Feature Race and eighth in the Sprint Race.
ALEX ALBON’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇩🇪 Nico HULKENBERG
Nico Hulkenberg has picked up points on five of his 11 appearances at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. His eighth place in 2024 marked the first time he scored at Yas Marina Circuit since 2017. His best result here is sixth, recorded in both 2014 and 2017. He has failed to finish twice, including in 2018 when his Renault car was flipped over on the opening lap.
Hulkenberg has qualified in the top ten on all but one of his last ten appearances at Yas Marina Circuit. His best qualifying result here is fourth, which he recorded in 2024 – though he was given a grid penalty which dropped him to seventh in the starting order. Fifth, with Sauber in 2013, is the highest he has started on the grid here.
His worst qualifying result here is 15th, recorded on his final appearance with Williams in his rookie 2010 season. Hulkenberg is yet to record a Q1 exit at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
NICO HULKENBERG’S ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX HISTORY
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🇧🇷 Gabriel BORTOLETO
Gabriel Bortoleto raced at Yas Marina Circuit for the first time in Formula 2 in 2024, on the weekend that he secured his F2 title. In both the Sprint Race and the Feature Race, Bortoleto finished as runner-up, capping off his title-winning year and his journey through the junior ranks with a double podium result.
