Verstappen takes pole position for F1 title-deciding Abu Dhabi GP ahead of Norris and Piastri

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Max Verstappen took a brilliant pole position for the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ahead of Formula 1 title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on Saturday.

The thrilling three-way battle will be decided on Sunday at the Yas Marina Circuit. The McLaren driver Norris is 12 points ahead of Red Bull’s Verstappen and 16 ahead of McLaren teammate Piastri.

Verstappen is aiming for his fifth straight F1 title — Norris and Piastri are chasing their first. All three drivers have won seven races.

The Dutchman is ready to fight for another title battle on the final day — just like in 2021, when he beat seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton on the last lap to clinch his first championship.

“We find out tomorrow don’t we?” Verstappen said. “I will try and win the race.”

Pole position is crucial on the 58-lap circuit in Abu Dhabi, where overtaking is hard. Every driver has won from pole since 2015. The last driver not to win from pole was Nico Rosberg in 2014, when he was beaten by his then-Mercedes teammate Hamilton.

Verstappen had already set the fastest lap on his first go but went even quicker on his second attempt and clocked 1 minute, 22.207 seconds, making him .201 faster than Norris and .230 quicker than Piastri.

“That was insane,” Verstappen said over team radio after his eighth pole of the season and 48th overall. “Yes. Lovely.”

Verstappen kissed his girlfriend, Kelly Piquet, and shook hands with McLaren CEO Zak Brown.

Norris will win the title if he’s on the podium in Abu Dhabi. Even if Verstappen wins, the Dutchman needs Norris to be fourth or lower. If Piastri wins, he requires Norris to finish outside the top five.

Norris will start from the front row but was disappointed not to be on pole.

“We just weren't fast enough today. We'll have to try and do it tomorrow,” he said. “I still want to try and win tomorrow, so that's going to be the goal.”

Piastri was content with his performance.

“Nicely done,” he said. “Wasn’t much left."

Hamilton was eliminated from Q1, the first section of qualifying, for the third straight race. He also crashed in third practice due to a driver error earlier Saturday, and has not qualified inside the top 10 for four consecutive races.

“I’m so sorry,” Hamilton said over team radio. “There are no words to express how I feel.”

Asked about 2026, a dejected-sounding Hamilton said “I’m not looking that far ahead."

Mercedes driver George Russell qualified fourth ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who fared much better than his more illustrious teammate.

Russell led third practice ahead of Norris and Verstappen.

But Hamilton lost the rear of the Ferrari coming out of Turn 9 and spun full circle before sliding into the barriers, bringing out the red flag. He stepped out of the car and picked up some of the debris himself.

Hamilton owns F1 records for most wins (104) and pole positions (104) but called his own performance “ terrible ” this season.

The 40-year-old Briton won a sprint race in China in March, but nothing else this season. He has not even been on the podium in a main race this campaign.

Norris showed good pace to lead Friday’s first two practice sessions ahead of Verstappen.

Norris had the chance to wrap up the title at last week’s Qatar Grand Prix but a botched strategy call by McLaren handed Verstappen the win, boosting his chances of a fifth straight title to equal Michael Schumacher’s feat with Ferrari from 2000-04.

Verstappen’s victory in Qatar was his 70th overall. His title chances improved after Norris and Piastri were disqualified in Las Vegas.

After winning the Dutch GP on Aug. 31, Piastri led by Norris by 34 points and was 104 ahead of Verstappen, who had won just two races.

Piastri, who is looking to become the first Australian champion in 45 years, hasn’t won in eight races since his Zandvoort win.

When Norris won the Brazil GP sprint race in early November, he moved 39 ahead of Verstappen with four races to go.

Verstappen also qualified in 16th for the main race in Sao Paulo and said he could “ forget about ” winning the title at that point.

Now, it’s a different feeling.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

From the left, secon-placed McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain, first-placed Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and third-placed McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia stand on the podium after the qualifying for the he Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands celebrates after clocked the fastest time during the qualifying session ahead of the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

McLaren chief Zak Brown cangratulates Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands after the qualifying for the he Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands, right, kisses his girlfriend Kelly Piquet after clocked the fastest time during the qualifying session ahead of the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands celebrates after clocked the fastest time during the qualifying session ahead of the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands steers his car during the qualifying session ahead of the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

In this photo taken with slow shutter speed, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands steers his car during the third practice ahead of the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia steers his car during the third practice ahead of the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britainin action during a practice for the he Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain walks back to his pits after he crashed into the track wall during the third practice ahead of the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

CAIRO (AP) — Iranians began to regain internet access on Wednesday after authorities ended a monthslong shutdown. But users said service was slow and spotty in some areas, with apps like YouTube and Instagram heavily restricted, as they were before the cutoff began during nationwide protests in January.

Authorities justified the outage as a military imperative after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Their decision to lift some restrictions this week came as negotiators appeared to be closing in on a more permanent truce. But many Iranians feared access could be cut off again at a moment's notice.

Internet tracking company Netblocks said Iran’s connectivity, which measures the ability of devices to connect to the internet, is at around 86% of capacity from before the cutoff. Internet analysis firm Kentik said internet traffic, which measures the amount of data transferred and is a good illustration of usage, was at around 40%.

Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity analyst, said there were still widespread disruptions. “It's too early to say the shutdown is over,” he wrote on X.

Iran’s roughly 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world’s longest and strictest national shutdowns. Young people with online careers saw their incomes evaporate. Job losses and the closure of online businesses added to the war's steep economic costs.

The cutoff made it difficult for Iranian families to communicate through months of unrest and war. At some points, phone lines were also cut off, though they were later restored.

A woman living in Tehran said that for months she was barely able to speak to her sons living abroad. She couldn't believe authorities had restored access, saying she had assumed they would find some justification to prolong the outage.

A taxi driver said service was restored but weak. He expressed hope it would improve so he could use messaging apps with family and friends. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Prices spiked during the shutdown, with residents in Tehran at times paying around $7.50 per gigabyte. Prices are back down to around $2.25 for 30 gigabytes, roughly where they were before the protests.

Even then, Iran tightly controlled access to popular social media sites, leading many to rely on virtual private networks, or VPNs. The cost of those workarounds soared during the shutdown, making them unaffordable for many as the economy was battered.

Businesses have started reappearing online, announcing their return with posts on sites like Instagram and Telegram.

A gamer and tech influencer in the central city of Isfahan said the shutdown had caused him to lose a lot of his audience on YouTube and Instagram, where he had spent years building up a large following.

“All my views and interactions are way down. I’ve been erased from the algorithm,” he said in a voice note sent by WhatsApp, adding that his internet connection was still slower than before the shutdown.

“The situation is such that many content producers have had their income reduced to zero, have moved on to other jobs, or have been forced to sell their equipment to survive,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Iranian authorities first shut down the internet in January during mass anti-government protests that were eventually stamped out in a violent crackdown. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands detained.

That cutoff was just starting to ease when the government imposed a complete internet blackout after the start of the war, when U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader and other top officials.

The government faced criticism for the prolonged shutdown, which caused even more harm to an economy devastated by inflation, strikes on key industries and a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.

The internet cutoff cost an estimated $30-40 million daily, with indirect losses likely twice that much, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Afshin Kolahi, told a local newspaper last month. About 10 million people have jobs that depend on internet connectivity, according to Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi.

Iranians still had access to a national net, but that has a far narrower reach, and users complained of poor service and heavy censorship. Senior government officials are given SIM cards granting them access to the global internet. Under pressure, the government expanded access to the SIM cards to some professions during the shutdown.

A woman checks her smartphone while sitting on a bench along a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)