McLaren lock out the front row as Leclerc starts from P20 ahead of championship fight

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It all boils down to this! The championship fights could both very well be determined from this qualifying session. McLaren and Ferrari are separated by 21 points and are fighting for P1 in the constructor's while Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc are fighting for P2 in the driver's championship and are only separated by 8 points. See what happened in the session and who will start on pole in Abu Dhabi:

Mercedes were the first cars to head out on to track and they chose to start on softs
- Hamilton and Russell both looked strong in the practice sessions throughout the weekend
Sergio Perez had a roller coaster of emotions with one of his best times being deleted
- The time was then later reinstated, but the Mexican was very heated on the radio as he felt he wasted a fresh set of tires
Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 because Kevin Magnussen knocked over a bollard and unfortunately, Hamilton ran over it, hindering his pace
Jack Doohan had a very unimpressive qualifying for Alpine and finished in P20 despite his teammate, Pierre Gasly, making it into Q3
Both of the Williams drivers were eliminated in Q1 with Alex Albon finishing the session in P16 and Franco Colapinto finishing in P19
Charles Leclerc was looking to be in great shape in Q2, and set the fastest lap
- His lap time was later deleted which saw him being eliminated in Q2 resulting in Leclerc starting from P20 for the Grand Prix because of his 10-place grid penalty
- This has major implications for his championship fights
Both VCARB drivers were eliminated in Q2 with Yuki Tsunoda out-qualifying his teammate by one position
- Tsunoda will start in P11 and Lawson will start in P12
Many of the drivers struggled with track limits and saw their lap times being deleted
- Oscar Piastri was subject to this but saw his lap time be reinstated, just like Sergio Perez
Max Verstappen had a major moment at the last corner of the circuit and almost went off into the wall
- He was able to recover it and still put his Red Bull at the top of the timesheets
Valtteri Bottas was a standout during the qualifying session with him making it into Q3
Nico Hulkenberg had a stellar qualifying session and put his Haas in P4 on the grid
Lando Norris claimed pole ahead of Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz

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Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Qualifying Results

Position	Driver Name	Team	Time
1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:22.595
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:22.804
3	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1:22.824
4	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas F1 Team	1:22.886
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:22.945
6	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:22.984
7	George Russell	Mercedes	1:23.132
8	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:23.196
9	Valtteri Bottas	Stake F1 Team	1:23.204
10	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing	1:23.264
11	Yuki Tsunoda	Visa Cash App RB	1:23.419
12	Liam Lawson	Visa Cash App RB	1:23.472
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:23.784
14	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:23.833
15	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	1:23.877
16	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:23.821
17	Guanyu Zhou	Stake F1 Team	1:23.880
18	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:23.887
19	Franco Colapinto	Williams	1:23.912
20	Jack Doohan	Alpine	1:24.105