What Time Is Formula 1 Qualifying Tomorrow

The weather and conditions on the grid were before dry for the race. The air temperature was 29 °C (84 °F) with signs of a breeze which could blow sand onto the track and impede the cars' grip. Massa got the best start of the frontrunners off the line, as he passed Kubica into the first corner to take the lead. Hamilton's poor start caused his anti-stall system to kick in, and he was passed by six drivers to fall back to ninth. Räikkönen benefited from Hamilton's start by moving up to third, ahead of Kovalainen, Trulli and Heidfeld.

As Massa extended his lead at the front of the race, Hamilton, who trailed Alonso, collided with the back of the Renault, knocking the McLaren's front wing off the car. Suffering handling difficulties, Hamilton returned to the pit-lane for a new nose section, and rejoined in 18th place. Räikkönen took second place when he passed Kubica on lap three; Heidfeld took fourth when he passed Trulli and Kovalainen in separate manoeuvres. Further down the field, Vettel retired from the race on the first lap after twice colliding with other cars; Button, Sutil and Coulthard pitted to repair early damage.

Q3 looked set to be a tight affair but Red Bull executed a strategic plan brilliantly as Sergio gave Max a tow on the first runs in the session and Max duly went on to complete a stunning final sector as he set the pace by over half a second. Nobody could come close to him on the final attempts and he took the 90th pole position for a Honda-powered car in Formula 1, giving him the best possible starting position for Sunday's championship showdown. Toto Wolff expects a tough task for Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi. Now that the seven-time world champion will not start from pole position, he has to pass Max Verstappen somewhere during the race. That will be a difficult matter, also because the speed of Red Bull Racing on the various tire sets looked extremely strong.

At Sky Sports F1, he will discuss after qualifying what the disappointing performance in qualifying means for the title aspirations of his star driver. The qualifying session started strongly as Max was third quickest ahead of Sergio in fourth, Yuki in fifth and Pierre seventh, ensuring all four Honda-powered cars made it through to Q2 in comfortable fashion. The second part of qualifying is when the starting tyre compounds are decided for anyone in the top ten, and there was a real split as some teams opted for mediums and others for softs. The second of the back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring saw Verstappen pick up where he left off, delighting the Austrian crowd with pole position and then leading every lap of his team's home grand prix. A huge number of Dutch fans also mad there way to Austria to watch their hero dominate proceedings. The drama dutifully returned on the street circuit of Azerbaijan's capital, with a joint-record four red flags brought out during Saturday's qualifying session.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc managed to grasp pole position for the second race in a row but failed to keep it beyond lap two, when he was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton. After that the Monegasque went backwards down the order but recovered to fourth. Hamilton earned the 100th pole position of his career in Barcelona, but duly gave up first position on the first corner of the grand prix, having no option but to sacrifice the spot to an aggressive move by Max Verstappen. It's not as if all is lost for the seven-time world champion after missing out on the pole position, however, given the fact that he is still set to start the race on the front row and on medium tires, compared to Verstappen's soft tires. The Mercedes driver completed a clean sweep of top times on Friday in Jeddah, leading FP2 by 0.061s from team-mate Valtteri Bottas despite both drivers having their soft tyre qualifying-style runs hampered.

The second practice session was ended prematurely by a heavy crash for Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. The qualifying race is held a day before the final race day. It is carried out to determine the starting grids of the drivers on the final race day.

Going into the final grand prix of the year at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina circuit, Max Verstappen and Sir Lewis Hamilton are tied on 369.5 points each. The last time where the two leading Formula 1 drivers in the championship went into the final race tied on points was in 1974. The pole-sitter has won the last six races here, and the drivers starting have finished in the same order four times in the last six years including the last two times. It needed changing, changes have been made, I keep my fingers crossed that they are changes for the good because I want to see a track where both Lewis and Max can get at each other in terms of overtaking and try to win this title. The qualifying session on Saturday afternoon was split into three parts.

The first part ran for 20 minutes, and cars that finished the session 17th position or lower were eliminated from qualifying. The second part of the qualifying session lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions 11 to 16. The final part of the qualifying session determined the positions from first to tenth, and decided pole position. Cars which failed to make the final session could refuel before the race, so ran lighter in those sessions. Cars which competed in the final session of qualifying were not allowed to refuel before the race, and as such carried more fuel than in the previous sessions.

The race began with Kubica in pole position alongside Massa; Lewis Hamilton, the eventual Drivers' Champion, started from third, alongside Räikkönen. Kubica was passed by Massa into the first corner, and then by Räikkönen on the third lap. The Ferraris dominated at the front of the race, leading to their 1–2 finish. Hamilton had a slow start after almost stalling on the grid, and dropped back to ninth. The McLaren driver ran into the back of Fernando Alonso's Renault a lap later, breaking off the McLaren's front wing and dropping Hamilton to the back of the field. Lewis Hamilton is one of the most active Formula One racing drivers on social media, a job that he takes quite seriously (along with his team Mercedes-AMG) when it comes to connecting with its millions of fans.

Whether it be Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, the team/driver dynamic duo is constantly interacting with followers from across the globe day and night. Of course, that was until the 2021 F1 season finale in Abu Dhabi a couple of weeks back, when things didn't exactly go their way. Judging by Friday's practice sessions, Mercedes and Red Bull will, once again, be extremely close to each other. Max Verstappen will be determined to perform well this weekend, after suffering a tire failure at the track last season. He also lost out to Lewis Hamilton in Bahrain, despite having the faster car. The Dutchman will look to make amends and kick start his championship challenge at the Imola Grand Prix.

You can also watch Formula 2, Formula 3 and Porsche Supercup coverage. Alpine are due to give new Formula 2 champion Oscar Piastri some track time, while both Ferrari and Haas will test another Formula 2 driver, Robert Shwartzman. Mercedes welcomes Formula E champion Nyck de Vries, and Formula 2's Logan Sargeant makes his debut in a Williams. All teams will be obliged to run rookies in free practice sessions from 2022, so expect to see a lot more of them during grands prix weekends.

Sky's race day coverage of this weekend's Abu Dhabi grand prix will also simulcast on Channel 4, as mentioned above. All Sky customers will have access to qualifying on Saturday and the race via Sky Showcase. However, Sky Sports F1 will be the only place where you can watch every session, including free practice, as well as the Formula 2 finale. I'll be back tomorrow with the build-up to the title-deciding race from around 11am. Hamilton second on the more favourable medium tyres, but with a bunch of soft tyre runners around him. Let's hope the season gets the finale it deserves.

Another exciting element of the 2021 F1 season was the debut of Sprint Qualifying. The 100km races determined the starting grid for Sunday's grands prix and awarded championship points to the top three drivers. Channel 4's commentator called the inaugural Saudi GP "an incredible day of confusion," which is an understatement – this will go down as one of the most contentious races of all time. But it delivered on thrills and means a final race of the season with the two leading drivers tied on points, as the incredible 2021 season reaches its conclusion. Meanwhile Stroll was by the accident ahead and drove into the side of Leclerc. After a safety car, teams were told there would be a standing start from the grid, but just beforehand all the drivers except leader Hamilton dived into the pits for slick tyres, as the track was drying.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen took the pole position for Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix by recording the fastest lap time in the third and final round of qualifying. On soft-compound tires, Verstappen took the fastest lap of the qualifying session. His Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, will be starting fourth. Red Bulls' Max Verstappen and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton are locked in a close battle for the F1 drivers championship. Both of them will look to improve their place in the standings with a victory on Sunday in the 2021 United States Grand Prix. The race will be 56 laps of the 3.426 mile Circuit of The Americas Sunday.

The weekend will include three days of events and entertainment to enjoy. Qualifying is going to play a major role in determining the outcome of the race. The Imola Grand Prix is notorious for minimal overtaking opportunities. The circuit only has one DRS zone, so fans shouldn't expect much overtaking.

The circuit is extremely narrow, making wheel-to-wheel action nearly impossible. Teams will optimize their cars for qualifying, as it could decide the starting and finishing order for the Imola Grand Prix. The Imola Grand Prix is set to take place on the 18th of April 2021. As always, three practice sessions and a qualifying session will precede the main event. Qualifying will take place on Saturday, after the final practice session of the weekend. Channel 4 has free-to-air Formula 1 qualifying and race highlights which usually start airing a few hours after the chequered flag has been waved.

It also has live free-to-air coverage of the British grand prix every year, and is home of the all-women's W Series. In the event of one of these relatively unlikely outcomes leading to a tie on points, the driver who has claimed the most wins of the season would take the title. This season, Max has won nine grands prix while Lewis has won eight, which would therefore make Max the drivers' champion if they were tied on points. In the event two drivers had the same number of points and grand prix victories, the countback continues through the highest number of second places, highest number of third places and so on. One thing is certain, this season, which has won the sport a whole legion of new fans, is unlikely to have had its final plot twist. The possibility that the destination of this year's title is eventually decided in the stewards' room, or even a court room, remains very real.

McLaren's Lando Norris, who starts third after a brilliant performance, admitted he was so nervous of getting caught up in the drama, he wasn't even sure he would try to race the two championship leaders. Verstappen started seventh but made a storming start to reach fourth by turn one, but Hamilton capitalised on pole position and kept his lead. By lap five, Vesrtappen was up into second place, driving the doors off his Red Bull , with Bottas and Perez also driving through the field to make up for lowly grid positions.

It was "won" by Max Verstappen, who had qualified on pole, with a delighted George Russell in the Williams finishing behind him after a sensational lap on Saturday. Crucially Verstappen will be on soft tyres after flat-spotting his set of mediums during the second qualifying session - which he otherwise would've started the race on - while Hamilton will be on mediums as expected. After 21 exciting races, the F edition heads into the season finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend to determine the Drivers' and the Constructors' Champions. Title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are level on points (369.5) going into the final race, with the Dutchman having a slight advantage due to more race wins this year. Verstappen has won nine GPs as compared to Hamilton's eight. Coming to Abu Dhabi after claiming three consecutive race victories, Lewis Hamilton was indeed the favorite to clinch the pole position, and he did dominate through Q1 and Q2 by leading the timesheets.

However, Max Verstappen produced an incredible comeback when needed to beat the Briton to pole. A week before the start of the Grand Prix weekend, the News of the World alleged that Max Mosley, the president of Formula One's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile , had engaged in sexual acts with five prostitutes. While Mosley denied the allegations, he cancelled his scheduled appearance at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Hamilton was denied a record eighth world title in agonising fashion after Max Verstappen passed him on the last lap to collect his maiden F1 championship. The victory was a controversial one, though, after FIA race director Michael Masi came under fire for his interpretation of rules relating to lapped cars under safety car conditions in the closing stages.

For those on a budget, once again there are extended highlights of all F1 races on Channel 4, with additional live coverage of the British Grand Prix in July. A last-minute rights deal meant the Channel 4 also showed live coverage of the Abu Dhabi finale, though using the Sky Sports F1 feed and commentary. Highlights were also available on the channel's on-demand service, All 4. But when the leader slowed on the straight to hand back the place, Hamilton ran into the back of the Red Bull, causing damage to his front wing – a result of poor communication between teams and race control, it is thought. Both cars were able to continue and Verstappen yielded again but immediately re-took the position at the next corner. Verstappen started second and finished second, after a steady performance.

Norris led for much of the race, and regained the advantage shortly after a late stop for a set of fresh rubber. After 21 races, Formula 1's world championship will be decided at this afternoon's season finale as Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton go head-to-head at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Three other qualifying sessions earlier this year set the starting lineup for a sprint qualifying race, which then determined the starting lineup for the main event. For the final time in the 22-race 2021 Formula 1 season, the starting lineup for a Grand Prix was set by way of a three-round knockout qualifying session. In the championship-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it will be Max Verstappen starting from pole position, his 10th pole of the season — and the most important of the year.

The 2021 F1 calendar featured a record 22 Grands Prix and an epic title contest between Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull's Max Verstappen. In a class of their own all year, they went into the final round level on points – even then it was only decided on the very last lap, when Verstappen overtook race leader Hamilton to become the first Dutch world champion. Mercedes secured their eighth consecutive constructors' title, while Daniel Ricciardo returned to winning ways with McLaren, and Esteban Ocon took his and the Alpine name's first F1 victory. Mercedes' seven times world champion Hamilton will line up alongside on the front row, with Verstappen on the quicker soft tyres for the start and the Briton going for the more durable mediums. Red Bull's Max Verstappen landed a big blow in his winner-takes-all title battle with Lewis Hamilton by seizing pole position for Formula One's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday.

Speaking after the session, Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff, opined that the 7-time world champion will be furious going into the final race of the season. Consequently, the Austrian reckoned that this anger would also be motivating Hamilton to hunt Verstappen down. Good afternoon all, welcome to our live coverage of qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton expect to jostle for pole position at Yas Marina. But - spoiler alert - the result, with Lewis Hamilton winning and Max Verstappen coming second , means the pair will go to the final race in Abu Dhabi pretty much as the season started, level on points. Verstappen still leads by dint of more race wins.

That growing archive includes past grands prix and highlights packages, season reviews going back to the 1970s, plus documentaries about drivers, teams and the sport's tech. Sky Sports has aired Formula 1 live and without ad breaks in the UK since 2013, on a dedicated channel, and will continue to do so in 2022. Its grand prix weekend coverage also covers the FIA's feeder series, Formula 2 and Formula 3.

For the first time since 2016 and for only the second time since 2012, the championship has gone down to the final race. In fact, both championships are still up for grabs, though Mercedes' 28-point advantage over Red Bull in the constructors means something strange will need to happen for Red Bull to win that title. Lewis Hamilton can still become the most decorated driver in the history of the sport on Sunday. Verstappen complained of having worn tyres with five laps to go, but he couldn't pit without losing second place to Ocon.

Hamilton nursed his own car home to take the win, with Verstappen 7sec behind – his time penalty making no difference to the order. Completing the excitement, Bottas passed Ocon metres before the chequered flag to complete the podium. Then the Dutchman got a stormer of a start to retake the lead on the medium tyres versus Hamilton's hards. Sadly for Bottas, a puncture on lap 33 dropped him out of the race from third position.

Both Williams cars later suffered punctures, though Perez had pitted to avoid the same fate to finish fourth. The final podium was Hamilton, Verstappen and then Alonso, in a brilliant drive for Alpine. Verstappen came in a lap later but a wheel change issue lost him time, and after Hamilton pitted the two championship rivals arrived at turn one side-by-side. Wheels touched and the Red Bull mounted the Mercedes, with replays showing Hamilton's life was clearly saved by his rollover loop and Halo device, as Verstappen's rear wheel came down on the British driver's cockpit.

The seven-times world champion again had to settle for second place, although he did snatch an extra point for the fastest lap thanks to a late pit stop. Mercedes Boss Toto Wolff admitted that, for the first time in the turbo-hybrid era that his team has dominated, Mercedes had "no weapons in our armoury". Hamilton agreed, estimating that Red Bull had an advantage of a quarter of a second on every lap of its home circuit. That left Max Verstappen on pole, enabling him to take a lead from the start that he never looked like relinquishing.

It was a notable off-day for Mercedes, with world champion Lewis Hamilton finishing seventh and Bottas forced to retire after mechanics were unable to remove his front-right tyre during a pitstop. The Ferrari of Carlos Sainz came in second while Lando Norris claimed his second podium of the season, in third. Verstappen flat-spotted his mediums in Q2, then got a slipstream from Sergio Perez to set his eventual pole position lap in Q3. Red Bull's Max Verstappen will be on pole position for the final race of the F1 season after two strategic moves helped him pip the favourite, Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton. The pair are expected to duel throughout the race at a circuit that has undergone plenty of changes to promote greater overtaking opportunities. Red Bull superstar Verstappen – in the hunt for his first world title – will be determined to make the most of his opportunity to seize glory against Mercedes' seven-time world champion Hamilton.