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The 2023 F1 Abu Dhabi GP qualifying is going to be the last one of the 22-race long season. The first day of the running has hardly been conclusive for everyone involved. There were 10 young drivers that took part in FP1 and in FP2 we had two red flags.
The FP2 session ended with Charles Leclerc at the top of the standings, followed by Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Mercedes seemed to be a peg lower in terms of single-lap performance than their counterparts.
Could this be a concern in the 2023 F1 Abu Dhabi GP qualifying? Well, let's take a look at what we can expect on Saturday (November 25).
#1 Charles Leclerc secures pole position for the 2023 F1 Abu Dhabi GP
The first day of running at the 2023 F1 Abu Dhabi GP revealed one crucial thing. Ferrari's ability to have a strong straight-line speed coupled with decent slow-speed efficiency truly helped the team here. Charles Leclerc is pulling close to 4 tenths of a second over Mercedes in the second sector and it is entirely down to the straights.
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When it comes to the battle for pole position, it seems as if it's going to come down to Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren, but looking at the form, we're going with Charles Leclerc on this one.
#2 Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari will be very close to each other
Adding on to the previous point, while Charles Leclerc is the favorite to secure pole position, it won't come as a surprise if all three teams and their lead drivers are within a tenth of each other.
For Ferrari, Carlos Sainz's crash is going to cost him valuable time. For McLaren, Oscar Piastri once again seems to be missing a few tenths against Norris while at Red Bull, Sergio Perez's low downforce setup was costing him a lot in the third sector.
You take all of that into consideration and you have Verstappen, Norris and Leclerc fighting for the F1 Abu Dhabi GP pole. In all likelihood, it's going to come down to these three.
#3 Mercedes might just be the 4th fastest car
Unless Mercedes has something in the bag, the team might be feeling a bit disappointed with the first day of running at the 2023 F1 Abu Dhabi GP. The worst nightmare for the Brackley-based team would be for Ferrari to be the quickest in qualifying while Mercedes is the fourth fastest.
By the looks of it, even though we have a very small sample size in front of us, it does appear that Mercedes might be trailing a little against Ferrari. Even though the car comes alive in races, if there is too big a gap between the starting positions, then that's going to put the German team on the backfoot.
#4 Aston Martin might struggle to make it to Q3
Aston Martin seems to be a step behind in Abu Dhabi. Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were unable to do lap times where the car seemed competent enough to compete at the front of the grid.
Losing close to half a second to Charles Leclerc in the second sector alone is damning but not gaining anything back in the third sector showed that the car is just not competitive. The car looks 5th to 6th fastest at best and it might struggle to make it to Q3 with either of the drivers.
#5 Williams won't make it past Q1
The long straights were supposed to work for Williams but once that car reached the third sector, the deficit was just shocking. The 2023 F1 Abu Dhabi GP is the last race of the season and even though the season has been good for the Grove-based team, the last race might not be the most remembered.
