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Lawrence Edmondson
Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi — max verstappen He has promised to go “all in” in the quest for his fifth world title after taking pole position in Sunday’s championship decider in Abu Dhabi.
The current champion is 12 points behind the championship leader lando norriswho will do Start the race from second position on the grid ahead of his McLaren teammate and outsider for the title, oscar piastri,
Norris can secure his first world title by finishing on the podium, while Verstappen’s best path to championship glory is to win the race and hope Norris slips to fourth or lower.
Asked if he was willing to take maximum risks to ensure victory and increase his chances of a fifth title, Verstappen said he would go “all out” on Sunday.
“I have nothing to lose,” he said. “For me, of course, I’m going to try to win the race. I’m going to defend [the lead] And if I need to attack, I will attack.
“Because what could happen? You have one second.” [place finish in the championship] Or third or you’ll win.”
If Verstappen is leading the McLarens after the first lap then one option open to him is to deliberately drop them back into the chasing pack to try to lose the position to Norris.
it’s a trick Lewis Hamilton working on teammates nico rosberg Leading the 2016 title decider in Abu Dhabi, although in that instance Rosberg finished second and clinched the title.
However, Verstappen said that changes made to the circuit, cars and tires since 2016 mean that the pack is less likely to successfully back up.
“It was different [track] Layout,” he said. “I feel like you’re too stretched out on my lap now. So it’s probably not that easy to do something like this.
“The car is definitely completely different than it was back then. I felt like it was a lot easier to back up at that time because the tires got so hot when you got closer. [to the car in front],
“I remember even in 2016 in some qualifying laps you couldn’t flat out in sector one to keep the tires alive in the later laps, which was actually the case here, for example.
“It’s a very different, very different time. I hope it’s not a straight race, but hopefully it’s not because of me.”
Verstappen took pole position by 0.201 seconds ahead of Norris in the qualifying session, where the margin was typically less than one-tenth of a second.
The Red Bull driver saved two sets of fresh soft tires for Q3 and said the track conditions were also in his favor for his final two flying laps.
“Well, in Q2, I stayed on rubbed tires [to save a set of fresh tyres for Q3]And I think those laps were already feeling pretty good,” he said. “Because then in Q3, with the track temperature getting lower, you can push a little bit more, and that’s exactly what we did.
“We got a little more lap time, and were obviously incredibly happy to come first. That’s the only thing we can do, that’s the only thing we can control, is to maximize what we have and what we can do with the car. We did that in qualifying.”
