Verstappen didn't win much with tow: 'It's not a massively long straight'

Max Verstappen partly owes his pole position for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying to Sergio Perez. The Mexican gave his teammate a tow during the first run in Q3 and it was executed perfectly. The Dutchman thanked him.

Mercedes on the other hand didn't try anything with a tow. For Valtteri Bottas, qualifying went quite disappointingly and he will start from P6 tomorrow. Hamilton indicated after qualifying that the teammates have never discussed anything like this before. At Red Bull, this is the case.

"It was discussed before qualifying. It was very nice, nicely executed. Whatever the gap was, I might have gained a tenth towards turn nine. It's not a massively long straight but nevertheless, Checo's a great team-mate and a real pleasure to work with, so of course, also a big thank you to him,"  Verstappen said during the press conference at the FIA.

Tow was not practiced

Verstappen would probably also have taken pole position without the tow of Perez, because in his second run the Dutchman was also fast. However, he broke off his lap halfway through. Still, it's a great team performance.

The Dutchman indicated that the tow was not practiced before the start of qualifying. "Checo and I said to ourselves we were confident to do it," he said.