After coming close before, Max Verstappen was delighted to finally end the 2020 season with one pole to his name at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Dutchman became the first non-Mercedes-powered car to go fastest in qualifying this year and the also ended the Brackley-based team’s six-year run of pole positions at Yas Marina.
Based on his performance in final practice the result shouldn’t have been surprising as Verstappen led the way by half a second, but after depriving Valtteri Bottas pole by just 0.025s, Max couldn’t contain his excitement.
“I said before qualifying it’s going to be the final send of the season, and we did that. I’m very happy about that,” he told David Coulthard in Parc Ferme.
“It was quite a tricky qualifying to get the lap together. There are so many corners where you can make a mistake but luckily everything came together in that final lap.
“It’s a long season for everyone, especially a lot of races in a row, so I think this was a good final qualifying for everyone in the team. The whole year when you’re behind getting closer it gets frustrating but very pleased with today.”
Now the task for Verstappen is converting pole into what would be his second win of 2020 on Sunday.
But a tricky race lies ahead with teams not getting all the tyre data they wanted in the disrupted second practice on Friday.
“I don’t think we did a lot of laps, everyone, so we have to wait and see how that goes. We will try to do our best to try to keep them behind,” he said.
“They are still very fast but it seems we have a decent top speed so hopefully that will work out for tomorrow.”
After Max claimed pole, Red Bull boss Christian Horner was as excited an anyone over the radio, later hailing his star driver.
“It’s been so many times this year we’ve sat in that third-place seat Max actually took it home with him at the press conference on Thursday,” Horner told Sky Sports.
“He’s just strung together a brilliant lap at the end there and it’s so tight, just less than a tenth between the top three cars.
“He was gutted to miss out last week and to put that lap here, to get that pole, is a phenomenal performance.”
With a large portion of the current car designs set to be carried over into 2021, Red Bull’s strong pace does indicate Mercedes may have their work cut out next season.
And asked what message pole at the final race sent, Horner replied: “I think it’s important for the team who have worked so hard to keep improving this car.
“I also think it’s important for Honda as well and for Max who has just been mighty this year and dragged every ounce of performance out of the car.
“To get this pole at the last race is important. But it’s also important to convert it on race day into a great result.”