The final Formula One qualifying session of the 2023 season took place on Saturday at the United Arab Emirate's Yas Marina Circuit in the capital city of Abu Dhabi. The resulting front row combination looked familiar with Red Bull's Max Verstappen taking the pole and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc sitting in the outside position of the front row.

Verstappen's 32nd career pole ties Nigel Mansell's career pole record.

Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz, having a difficult weekend with a hard FP2 crash, did not make it out of Q1. Sainz ran the slowest lap of the Free Practice Session earlier in the afternoon.

"It was a difficult day for me. We found ourselves in a challenging situation leaving the pits late due to a small issue with the front wing. Then the traffic during the push lap didn't help and I didn't manage to put a clean lap together, so that was my bad," said Sainz.

"So far it has been a tricky weekend but the race is tomorrow and I will push to recover and fight to score important points for the team. It's not over yet," added the Spaniard.

McLaren's standout rookie, Oscar Piastri, qualified third and his teammate, Lance Norton, qualified P5.

"A strong qualifying session here for the finale in Abu Dhabi," said Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal, "The car was competitive which allowed Lando and Oscar to fight for the top positions of the grid. Oscar gained confidence throughout the session, and he found his way to put the car in P3, which is a very good starting position for tomorrow's race."

The stewards did look into an incident where Piastri may have been impeding the Alpine of Pierre Gasly in Turn 4 during Q1 but later decided no action was required as Gasly was at full throttle throughout the turn.

Mercedes driver, George Russell, qualified on the outside of row 2 (P4). Russell's teammate, Lewis Hamilton, a five time pole sitter at Abu Dhabi, did not make it out of Q2, the first time since 2014.

AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda qualified 6th, the best qualifying position of his career.

"Yuki did an amazing job and was super competitive throughout, progressing through to Q3 and putting in a stunning lap at the end on the last new tyre set to break into the 1:23's and line up in P6 tomorrow," said Jonathan Eddolls, AlphaTauri's, Chief Race Engineer.

AlphaTauri is currently in a fight with Williams Racing for P7 in the Constructors Championship.

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:23.445	141.573 mph
2	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:23.584	0.139
3	Piastri		McLaren		1:23.782	0.337
4	Russell		Mercedes	1:23.788	0.343
5	Norris		McLaren		1:23.816	0.371
6	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:23.968	0.523
7	Alonso		Aston Martin	1:24.084	0.639
8	Hulkenberg	Haas		1:24.108	0.663
9	Perez		Red Bull	1:24.171	0.726
10	Gasly		Alpine		1:24.548	1.103
11	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:24.359	
12	Ocon		Alpine		1:24.391	
13	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:24.422	
14	Albon		Williams	1:24.439	
15	Ricciardo	AlphaTauri	1:24.442	
16	Sainz		Ferrari		1:24.738	
17	Magnussen	Haas		1:24.764	
18	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:24.788	
19	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:25.159	
20	Sargeant	Williams	No Time	

(image provided by Alfa Romeo F1 Team KICK)