Lando Norris was fastest in first practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix; the championship leader set a 24.485 to put his McLaren eight hundredths faster than his title rival Max Verstappen. The Englishman looked quick despite conditions being unrepresentative of conditions for qualifying and the Grand Prix.
Norris aborted his first attempt on the soft tyre after making an error on his way out of the second corner, and was then slightly behind Verstappen with his first run. But after going for his second real attempt, his third on that set of tyres, he managed to move ahead of Verstappen.
Norris goes into the weekend as the favourite to secure the championship, with a top-three finish on Sunday the easiest way to a maiden title, but Verstappen looked on the pace. Although it will be more telling once the sun starts to set what the true performance is.
Though Verstappen won the last race in Lusail last weekend thanks to a McLaren error on strategy, the feeling was that the British team should have won that race if they had followed what became the common strategy. As a result, Norris has a twelve-point lead and needs a podium to guarantee him the championship, though there are other ways but that depends on where Verstappen and teammate Oscar Piastri finish.
Verstappen reported that there “might be something broken” on his RB21, an issue that he suggested was “everywhere” on the car, though the World Champion was still running on track.
Piastri, meanwhile, sat out FP1, on as IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward completed one of McLaren’s mandatory ‘rookie’ runs. Piastri is 16 points behind Norris and faces a difficult mathematical task if he is to become champion. As normal, FP1 in Yas Marina was unrepresentative as it is run in daylight, while both qualifying and the race start at twilight and run as the sun sets and day turns to night.
Many of the teams chose to run rookie drivers – only Mercedes and Sauber had both their race drivers in the cars.
Charles Leclerc showed a stronger pace for Ferrari; he was third fastest, a further eight hundredths behind the McLaren. He was again partnered by his younger brother Arthur, who put his Ferrari sixteenth. But following a tough race in Lusail, it was a much stronger start in a tough season ahead of the final race.
Kimi Antonelli put his Mercedes fourth, but the Italian was just over a tenth outside the top three, as he went two hundredths faster than Nico Hulkenberg, followed by their respective teammate George Russell, who was a tenth behind the German, and ahead of the second Sauber of Gabriel Bortoletto by a hundredth.
Sauber being in the top ten isn’t really a major surprise as this season they have looked quick at high speed and downforce circuits. Bortoletto was only four hundredths off Hulkenberg.
The Brazilian going just over a hundredth and a half ahead of Ollie Bearman, with Carlos Sainz, who at one point was fastest a hundredth further behind. While Franco Colapinto completed the top ten, four and a half tenths off the pace set by Norris.
Bearman, however, lost a bit of track time because of a sensor problem, though Haas thought they had resolved it he then missed the end of the session.
Ryo Hirakawa put his Haas eleventh; he missed out on the top ten by eight hundredths as he went four hundredths ahead of Isack Hadjar. The Red Bull-bound French Algerian was the only race driver outside the top ten as he completes in the final race of his rookie season; he was comfortably ahead of Paul Aron.
Aron was four hundredths ahead of McLaren IndyCar runner-up Pato O’Ward, who replaced Piastri. The Mexican was a hundredth ahead of Racing Bulls-bound Arvid Lindblad who replaced Verstappen, while Arthur Leclerc was a tenth further behind. The younger Leclerc was eight-tenths behind his older brother.
Ayumu Iwasa put his Racing Bull a hundredth and a half ahead of Luke Browing with Aston Martin, who ran both reserve drivers completing the field. Jak Crawford was half a second ahead of Clan Shields, the latter nearly two seconds off the outright pace.
