F1: Norris On Abu Dhabi Pole With Hamilton 18th

Lando Norris took pole position at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri as McLaren put themselves in a perfect position to clinch their first constructors’ title since 1998.

Norris headed Piastri by 0.209 seconds at the end of a gripping, topsy-turvy qualifying session at the final race of the season.

Carlos Sainz took third place for Ferrari, who trail McLaren by 21 points heading into Sunday’s race.

His team-mate Charles Leclerc will start at the back, qualifying 13th after having his lap time in second qualifying deleted for exceeding track limits, and with a 10-place grid penalty to come.

Lewis Hamilton qualified 18th in his final race for Mercedes after his decisive lap in the first session was wrecked when his car collected a bollard dislodged by Kevin Magnussen’s Haas as the Dane tried to get out of Hamilton’s way.

“You couldn’t make it up,” said Hamilton, who is set to start 16th after penalties for Leclerc and Williams’ Alex Albon. “It is what it is.”

World champion Max Verstappen starts fifth, immediately in front of Mercedes’ George Russell in seventh after their row this week.

McLaren had dominated the practice sessions leading up to qualifying and were favourites for pole, but they did not show their hand until the final lap of a session marked by track limits transgressions and other incidents.

Verstappen was quickest on the first runs in the final session in his Red Bull, despite a big slide out of the final corner which he just managed to rescue from turning into a crash into the pit wall on the inside.

The McLarens were on used tyres for the first runs in the top 10 shootout and Norris was just 0.004secs behind Verstappen, who was on new tyres, with Piastri a further 0.036secs behind.

Verstappen did not improve on his final lap and he dropped down to fifth behind Norris, Piastri, Sainz and the impressive Haas of Nico Hulkenberg. The Dutchman ended up 0.350secs off the pace.

He said: “You never really had a good compare because many people kept aborting on their new tyres and when I went P1 other people were on scrubbed (tyres) so it didn’t give a fair performance assessment.

“If I didn’t drop it on the last corner I think I could have fought for second.”

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly took sixth, ahead of Russell, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

Leclerc went fastest with a lap at the end of the second session, but he had it deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn One.

He will start 19th after his penalty, one place ahead of Williams’ Franco Colapinto, who qualified 19th but like Albon has a five-place penalty for excessive gearbox usage.

Leclerc said he still had hopes of a miracle in the constructors’ championship.

“The joy will be even bigger if we pull it off after such a tough weekend,” he told BBC Sport. “I hope we can turn this around in the best possible way.

“I am very disappointed with my performance today and I am very disappointed with what happened on the engine yesterday but that makes me more determined to do something special tomorrow. So I will give it my all.