Winners and losers from the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying

Qualifying for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ended with a McLaren front-row lockout, giving the papaya team a great shot at securing its first World Constructors’ Championship for the first time in decades.

They’ve earned place at the top of our list as well. Here’s our full list of winners and losers from qualifying for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Pric.

Winners and losers from the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying

Winner: McLaren

The team in papaya may not have been able to guarantee its place as winners of the 2024 World Constructors’ Championship just yet, but locking out the front row with Lando Norris on pole is certainly a great way to get in position for that victory.

McLaren haven’t taken a WCC in decades, and the 2024 season has has been one of the first where things just seemed to work. Both Norris and Oscar Piastri were ready to start battling with the big dogs before McLaren even introduced its first upgrade package in Miami, and things have only accelerated from there.

Both the team and its drivers suffered from a handful of minor mistakes that ultimately had big repercussions, but the fact that McLaren is able to enter the season finale with Norris and Piastri leading the field to the first turn signals a massive accomplishment from the Woking-based team.

Loser: Lewis Hamilton

“I messed that up big time,” Lewis Hamilton said over the radio after his final attempt at a flying lap in Q1. “That was bad, man. Jesus.”

Those aren’t words the Mercedes team would ever want to hear but they’re particularly brutal this weekend, the team’s final event with Hamilton as a driver.

Hamilton can’t really be blamed for his slow lap; rather, he was the victim of a very unfortunate circumstance. Haas driver Kevin Magnussen had pulled to the side of the track to allow cars on fast laps by him, but in the process, he knocked a bollard directly into Hamilton’s path.

That bollard got wedged until Hamilton’s car and remained stuck there until after the checkered flag had waved on the session, leaving the driver to start a miserable 18th in his farewell race with Mercedes.

Winner: Valtteri Bottas

Sauber’s dismal 2024 season has turned around just in time for the finale — but let’s still take a moment to give Valtteri Bottas kudos. He may not have anything lined up just yet for 2025, but his final qualifying session saw him cross the line in ninth place for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Surprisingly, the Sauber has looked quick this weekend, and Bottas’ experience seems to be critical in extracting the most pace from the car. Whether or not it lasts through the race remains to be seen — but the Finnish racer at least gets to ride the high of a great final quali.

Loser: Charles Leclerc

A battery failure in practice saw Charles Leclerc’s final race of 2024 get started on the wrong foot. Ferrari — a team so close to McLaren in the WCC that a good result from the Scuderia in Abu Dhabi could totally change the leaderboard — had to change the component, and Leclerc earned a 10-spot grid penalty for the trouble.

A penalty of that nature would be challenging to overcome no matter what, but a decent finish in qualifying could have at least mitigated the damage. Instead, Leclerc was knocked out in Q2.

Though Ferrari hasn’t looked quite as quick as McLaren, the Scuderia still has pace this weekend — but exceeding track limits ultimately killed Leclerc’s momentum. His deleted lap had been good enough to stick him on provisional pole in Q2; sadly for him, it was illegal.

It’ll be an uphill battle tomorrow for Leclerc.

More insights from the Abu Dhabi GP weekend:

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Winner: Sergio Perez

A tough year for Sergio Perez ends on a high — at least as far as qualifying is concerned. The Red Bull driver looked strong in Q1, only to have his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits. It looked like it would be yet another first-round exit for Checo.

Then his lap time was reinstated.

Instead of fighting to survive, Perez was actually able to make it all the way to the final round of qualifying and will start from 10th on the grid tomorrow. It may not have been the kind of quali that could save a career, but it will at least take a weight off Checo’s shoulders heading into race day.

Loser: Nico Hulkenberg

Oh, Nico Hulkenberg. The Haas driver had a frankly stunning performance in qualifying, setting a lap that was good enough to put him fourth on the grid, just ahead of Max Verstappen. The second-row start beside Carlos Sainz would have been his best of the season, and it would have been a fantastic end to the German racer’s tenure at Haas.

Instead, he’s been penalized three grid positions and will start in seventh place.

The issue at hand was seemingly minor, but it still should have been clear for a veteran like Hulkenberg that he should have avoided the issue: Hulkenberg overtook two cars in the tunnel section of the pit road exit.

Per the race directors, Hulkenberg “did not dispute” that he had breached the Race Director’s rules. However, he also argued that he was effectively forced to do so in order to have enough time to put another fast lap on the board.

Sadly for Hulkenberg, the result is a grid drop penalty that he’ll have to work hard to overcome on race day.

Winner: Alpine

Yes, Jack Doohan will start from dead last on the grid tomorrow for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix while teammate Pierre Gasly starts from fifth — but I’d argue that this result is still a win for the Alpine team. Why? Because it has a head start on learning about Doohan.

Esteban Ocon was dropped by Alpine after last weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, to be replaced by Jack Doohan. The Australian rookie will be racing full-time with the team next year, and team boss Oliver Oakes stated that it would serve as a good opportunity for Doohan to shake off the butterflies that accompany a race debut.

It may also serve as a great chance for Alpine to begin evaluating Doohan before the 2025 season kicks off in full force. The team has expressed interest in signing Franco Colapinto; that interest has waned as a result of a few crashes, but Colapinto may remain on Alpine’s shortlist if Doohan doesn’t live up to expectations. And even if they keep Doohan, they’ve done themselves a favor in getting his feet wet early.

Loser: Track limits

Practice made it clear that track limits would almost certainly come into play in qualifying for Abu Dhabi, and they certainly did — but perhaps not the way we expected.

Drivers like Sergio Perez and Oscar Piastri saw their fast laps revoked, only to be reinstated shortly afterward when a deeper investigation made it clear that the drivers had actually remained ever so slightly within the boundaries of acceptability.

The 2024 season has been abuzz with concerns about track limits, so it seems fitting that the year end with a few deviations in qualifying.

Read next: Abu Dhabi GP: Misery for Hamilton in Mercedes swansong as Norris claims pole