Max Verstappen had a scary moment early in Q1 before his qualifying heroics in Abu Dhabi GP. But his sharp reflexes helped him avert a potential possible disaster.

Coming into Turn 6 of a timed lap in Q1, his left hand got caught in the cockpit. He could not turn the steering wheel properly and was moments away from crashing into the barriers.

Explaining to his race engineer on the radio for his slow lap, he said, “I got stuck my hand in the cockpit out of turn 6. That’s why the lap was bad.”

Thankfully for him, he could move on from the incident and take the team’s maiden pole of the season. Speaking after the race, he opened up about the incident further –

“It must have been something unfortunate. I got stuck, I think it was between the wheel and my knee. It never happened to me before. I literally was steering towards the wall. It’s just an unfortunate action.”

Max Verstappen glad to end Mercedes’ stronghold

Mercedes has been the team to beat in qualifying all year. The works team took pole in every race of the season, except Sakhir. Even there, they took a lot of the credit as the engine manufacturers of Pole-sitters Racing Point.

Here the Japanese Powertrain of Honda will claim the plaudits. So it elates Red Bull and Max to get one over their rivals, “The whole year, we were closing in a little bit, and I missed out a few times.

“But finally to at least sit here once after the dominance [Mercedes] had throughout the year is very nice for us and for the whole team as well.

“It’s been a very long season in a short period of time, a lot of races. I think everyone, they want the break, but to have the pole position here is good motivation for everyone in the team to try and finish it off tomorrow.”

As one can see, Verstappen knows that the job is only half done. At the end of the day, results on the main race matter. They would love to start and stay in 1st place by the end of the race.