George Russell took the lead in final practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with three title contenders joining the Mercedes driver in the top five.
Russell saved his best laps until late, delaying putting on his final set of new soft tires until the other front runners showed their hands. The Briton set the benchmark with a time of 1 minute 23.334 seconds, less than 0.3 seconds from Friday’s fastest lap, despite warmer temperatures and slower temperatures during the day.
Lando Norris, who dominated both of Friday’s practice sessions, was second, with the championship leader just 0.004 seconds behind. McLaren was much more adept at making their tires last longer in the slow, winding final sector, negating Mercedes’ gains on the mid-split straights.
The difference with Max Verstappen was 0.124s, with a similar advantage in the straights but a weakness in the final sector.Although the Dutchman was fastest in the first sector, he was 0.124s off the pace.
However, there are still problems facing the defending champion, with Verstappen reporting he bounced after his first flying lap on the softs.
“The problem is the cars are still jumping,” he said over the radio. “I can’t keep my foot on the pedal.”
Fernando Alonso improved his time in the closing stages, moving his Aston Martin into fourth place, 0.251 seconds slower than Russell. As a result, Oscar Piastri was demoted to fifth place, 0.259 seconds behind. The outside champion was faster than his teammate Norris in the first and second sectors, but fell more than 0.3 seconds behind in the final split.
Haas team-mates Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman were separated by just 0.012 seconds, with the pair separated by 0.004 seconds, continuing the team’s impressive run of form on Friday.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was eighth, 0.341 seconds ahead of Kimi Antonelli in the second Mercedes, but 0.373 seconds slower than his session-leading teammate.
Antonelli’s flying lap was complicated by a crash in the pit lane near the end, when he and Yuki Tsunoda were ejected from the pit lane from an adjacent garage at about the same time. Team radio said Antonelli had not been warned about the Red Bull Racing car before colliding with the sidepod. The front wing was damaged, damaging Kakuda’s terminal and making it impossible to complete the final soft run. This incident will be reported to the Stewards after the session.
This is the second incident involving Tsunoda, who is also accused of interfering with Norris early in the session. At that time, Tsunoda was caught wandering on the racing line between Turns 11 and 12, forcing the title leader to take evasive action.
Williams’ Alex Albon finished in the top 10 ahead of Gabriel Bortleto, Carlos Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll. The stewards will also be asked to consider dangerous ejections from the pit lane.
Liam Lawson led Racing Bulls teammate Isaac Hajjar and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
Lewis Hamilton crashed during practice midway through and finished 18th. The Briton’s Ferrari spun out of control and into the barriers as it entered Turn 19, a 110mph curve, resulting in a 13-minute red flag.
“Something buckled in the front and snapped off the back,” he radioed before pulling from the wreckage. Sparks were seen coming from the rear of the car as it straddled the curb on entry, suggesting the car had bottomed out before entering the corner.
Hamilton was fourth, slightly faster than teammate Leclerc at the time, but dropped down the order on the restart.
Franco Colapinto was 19th in front of the compromised Tsunoda.
result
