Verstappen describes 'spicy' crash scare in Abu Dhabi qualifying

Max Verstappen has labelled his near qualifying crash in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying as "spicy."

The world champion was rounding the final corner on the first laps of Q3 when he got throttle-happy, with the Red Bull spearing across the track. 

He avoided a head-on collision with the pit-wall, and went onto set a provisional pole time having kept his foot in, but the cars behind, including McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had used tyres for the first ones compared to a fresh set for Verstappen.

Once the field used a new set on the second runs, Verstappen fell to fifth place, and is joined on the third row by Pierre Gasly's Alpine. 

Speaking about the near-miss, Verstappen labelled the incident as "spicy."

"I thought at one point as I was facing the wall: "This can be quite spicy, but it is not quick," Verstappen reflected to media including RacingNews365.

"But the whole weekend, we've never found the sweet spot, maybe we looked okay in Q1 and Q2, but for most of the time, people were aborting their laps, had new tyres and then every time at the beginning of a session, people behind me were on scrubbed tyres when I put new ones on.

"Q3 was okay, but just not how I liked it, the car was just never planted, always difficult in some corners and it made it very difficult to be consistent. 

"I tried to adjust in some corners, but then something else happened in another corner that made it difficult. 

"The front-end was stronger [than in practice], so that was a bit more positive, but it is the balance shift we get through corners at some tracks which makes it a bit more limiting.

"I should have been on the front-row, but it is still not bad as we know that if we fix our problems, we will pick up a lot of lap-time, but it is about fixing those problems, because our balance shift makes it diffiult to find a good compromise with the tools we have in the car.

"We need to work on that for next year, but I'm confident we have a quick race car."