Horner after pole in Abu Dhabi: 'One of Max' best laps this year'

Published on 11 December 2021 by Julien Lemmen

Max Verstappen got himself the best possible starting position for the season finale in Abu Dhabi, where he will battle it out for the championship with rival Lewis Hamilton. With a strong lap Max took his tenth pole of the season and he was over three tenths of a second quicker than Hamilton. Teammate Sergio Perez helped Verstappen by giving him a tow on his flying lap. In the end the Mexican qualified fourth.

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner is extremely satisfied with the qualifying result: “That was one of Max's best laps of the year, but now we need to try and convert that tomorrow. Both runs in Q3 were exceptional and it was great teamwork from Checo to give him the tow like he did, it was worth a tenth or two, but not half a second. Max has given it his all and is driving his heart out, he’s thrown everything at it today. Credit has to be given to Checo, he has been a real dutiful teammate and sacrificed his laps tonight, we can't ask for more than that."

Horner continues: "When we discussed strategies this morning we were very much 50/50, so we're not overly upset to be starting on the softs, the medium is a bit more robust but it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Track position will also be crucial given the degradation. We've just got to get our heads down and run our best race tomorrow, as we know how good Mercedes are around this track, it's one of Lewis' strongest circuits, so we need to focus on ourselves and hopefully we’ll do enough to win it.”

Contest GP Abu Dhabi: win a by Max Verstappen signed 1:2 helmet 2021!