Red Bull's Max Verstappen will be hoping that a remarkable statistic about the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix comes true again tomorrow: the driver who started from pole has won the race for the last 10 years.

The Dutchman's time on both his first and second runs in Q3 were good enough for pole: two tenths of a second faster than the McLarens - which line up second and third with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri respectively.

This means that all three title contenders will start the decider together at the front of the grid, after an extremely close qualifying session. Tactics already played a part, with some drivers aiming to benefit from an aerodynamic tow down the straights during qualifying.

All the drivers used the soft tyre to set their fastest laps, with Verstappen selecting scrubbed tyres in Q2 before sealing his fifth pole in Abu Dhabi on a new set: going three tenths of a second faster than last year's pole position.

With the competitive margins so closely poised, drivers will be relying heavily on tyre strategy to make a difference in the 58-lap race tomorrow, which gets underway at 17:00: one hour before today's qualifying time.

The session started today under the lights in ambient temperatures of 25.6 degrees centigrade and track temperatures of 27.5 degrees, remaining largely consistent throughout the hour-long session.

The Pirelli Pole Position Award was given to Verstappen by Benson Boone. The American singer dominated the charts in 2024 with his hit 'Beautiful Things': the best-selling single of the year. Boone, who performed in concert at Yas Marina on Thursday night, has a new album out called 'American Heart'.

Tomorrow, Verstappen will also receive the 2025 Pirelli Pole Position of the Year award, which he sealed with his result today. The Red Bull driver pulled clear of Norris in the final rankings for overall pole positions during the season, sealing his eighth pole of 2025: one more than his McLaren rival.

Track temperatures were the hottest they have been all weekend (36 degrees centigrade) for FP3, which began at 13:30. Running was consequently limited in the non-representative conditions; especially at the start of the session. Nonetheless, all the drivers eventually ventured out on a combination of medium and soft compounds, with Aston Martin being the only team to scrub in hard tyres. In the closing minutes, as track evolution ramped up grip, Mercedes driver George Russell went quickest on the soft by just 0.004s from Norris. The session was interrupted by a red flag halfway through the hour, after the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton - the most successful driver in the history of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - went off.

Mario Isola: "Congratulations to Max Verstappen, who sealed pole just when it mattered most. In qualifying, some drivers chose to keep new soft C5 tyres for the quickest laps in the final Q3 session, even though we saw that used softs were still capable of setting fast times after a few cool-down laps.

Looking at the tyre sets that the teams have kept back for the race, there are two different approaches. McLaren is the only team that has saved two sets of new hards, while most other teams - including Red Bull - have saved two sets of mediums. This shows that teams are keeping the possibility of two stops open, but only McLaren - the winners of the constructors' championship this year - have gone for the most conservative option.

The two quickest strategies tomorrow are one-stoppers. One option is to start on the medium and switch to the hard between laps 20 and 26. An alternative is to start on the hard and then take advantage of the soft's extra performance by stopping between laps 39 and 45.

A two-stop strategy seems to be a bit less competitive, especially given the difficulty of overtaking here. The best way to do it is with a combination of medium and hard for the first two stints, followed by a final stint on the medium - which in theory would be quicker for the run to the flag than the hard or the soft under these circumstances.

It's not been possible to assess how graining has progressed from the short runs seen today, but there is no evidence of it so far this evening. Track evolution suggests that the situation will be better compared to Friday, especially thanks to the tyre management that we expect from the drivers during the grand prix."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Yas Marina here.