Why Lando Norris was disappointed with his Abu Dhabi qualifying

Lando Norris admitted he was “disappointed” with his qualifying result at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, despite being on the verge of winning his maiden F1 world championship.

The McLaren driver was beaten to pole position by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who produced a commanding performance to set two laps good enough to top qualifying for the eighth time this season.

Norris missed out on pole by 0.201 seconds but edged McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri by 0.029s in a crucial final qualifying of F1 2025.

"It's tough. Max did a good job, so congrats to him,” a frustrated-looking Norris said in the parc ferme interviews immediately after qualifying.

"We did everything we could. I think my lap was pretty good, I was pretty happy. Of course, disappointed to not be on pole for the final weekend but we were just not fast enough today, so we will try and do it tomorrow."

Asked to elaborate on his ‘disappointed’ comment in the post-qualifying press conference, Norris said: “Q1, Q2 was not the smoothest, my Q3 laps I’m pretty happy with honestly.

“I felt pretty good. I felt like I got a lot out of the car today and it wasn’t enough so of course disappointed because I want to be on pole for the final race of the year.

“We just didn’t have the pace today so I felt like I got the maximum out of the car today and I have to be happy with that.

“Of course [I’m] behind the one person I want to be ahead of, that’s the only reason for the disappointment but otherwise I was pretty happy with my laps and it was the maximum we could do.”

Norris not thinking about title permutations

Norris goes into Sunday’s finale with a 12-point lead over Verstappen, with Piastri a further four points adrift. He will be crowned champion if he finishes on the podium regardless of anyone else’s result.

Asked whether he would take finishing the race in the same order as qualifying, Norris replied: “I’m not too bothered to be the hunter or the hunted. Normally to be the hunted is fine because you are the one with the advantage in the first place, which is good.

“Of course I would sign for that now but life’s not that simple, sadly. We’ve still got to go into tomorrow and plan for how we are going to win the race, whether it’s on pace or strategy.

"That’s all going to be our plan for tomorrow and that’s how I want to end the season, standing on top, so nothing changes from that side.”