George Russell set the fastest time for the second time as practice came to an end at Yas Marina ahead of qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Russell set the pace with a 1’24.148, less than a tenth of a second ahead of Lando Norris and his McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri. Max Verstappen was only sixth-fastest, just behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Conditions were typically clear and warm for the start of the final hour of practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend. Despite the relative lack of running for many drivers in a disrupted second practice, there was not a rush of cars out onto the circuit as the session began.
Lewis Hamilton was the first driver to complete a flying lap in the session on the soft compound tyre, posting a 1’26.612. Carlos Sainz Jnr headed out on the medium tyres and beat Hamilton’s early benchmark by just three-thousandths of a second, before Sergio Perez put Red Bull on top of the times for the first time in the session with a 1’25.417, his first lap of the day on soft tyres.
Norris chose the soft tyres for his first run of the day, going just under a second slower than Perez’s early best to go second, with Lance Stroll moving ahead of Hamilton into third for Aston Martin. Eventually after 15 minutes had elapsed, Max Verstappen took to the track for the first time on the soft tyres. His first push lap was slower than both his team mate Perez and George Russell’s Mercedes, which had moved to the top of the times with a 1’25.163.
There was a near-miss outside the McLaren garage when Norris pulled into his pit box at the same moment that team mate Oscar Piastri was released from the garage. No harm was done, but Norris suggested to his team that it was “probably not the best idea to do that” over team radio.
The two Ferrari drivers headed out on used mediums to complete a long run on high fuel, while Verstappen remained on the soft tyres and improved to second-quickest, but half a second slower than Russell. Ferrari and Hamilton in the Mercedes continued to focus more on longer runs, but the Alpines and Williams improved to move into the top five before the McLarens of Norris and Piastri went second and third, respectively, on the soft tyres.
In the final 10 minutes of the session, Hamilton and the two Ferraris headed out on fresh soft tyres, but while Leclerc improved into fifth, Sainz remained down in 19th, 1.2 seconds off Russell’s improved best of a 1’24.418. No further improvements followed towards…
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