Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying Update

This is one of the most important qualifying sessions ever and James Punt has a preview. You can check out his ante-post tips and in-depth race analysis by clicking here. His Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying update is below:

This Abu Dhabi GP qualifying session looks like a formality. Lewis Hamilton has been fastest in the last two sessions and fairly comfortably. His Mercedes looks very quick over one lap, it may be a different story over a race distance, but for qualifying Hamilton has the right car and he will be quicker still this afternoon when they turn the engine up to full power.

Red Bull appear to be more concentrated on race pace and it was telling that Verstappen was practicing his starts from the second-place grid position at the end of the session. It may be not a question of if Hamilton gets pole position, but by how big a margin.

The track modifications have moved the circuit towards Mercedes. The fiddly third sector has had the corners opened up and it has more of a flow and less braking and traction.

Best Of The Rest

Best of the rest is hard to call on what we have seen so far. Alpine were flying yesterday, but slow today. They did the same thing last week and it was their Saturday form which carried through to qualifying. Lando Norris was fifth in FP3, but it was very close between him and the two Alpha Tauri’s. Tsunoda has been faster than Gasly in every session so far this weekend, but he is 0-20 in qualifying against his teammate this season. Can he end that run in the final qualifying session of the season? I suspect not but you can get 3.30 if you think he can.

The best of the rest in qualifying has been either Gasly or Leclerc in the last six qualifying sessions, three apiece. Ferrari did no running on the soft tyre in FP3 so eighth and tenth are not representative of where they are, but they haven’t looked especially quick so far. That said, Leclerc turned it on in qualifying last weekend after a quite practice. Norris is harder to call but I’ll go with Leclerc to edge it when they turn everything up and slip on the soft tyres.

Abu Dhabi GP qualifying Tip: 1 point Charles Leclerc to be the fastest qualifier without the big four @ 3.00 with Ladbrokes

-JamesPunt