Oscar Piastri Leads Lando Norris And Lewis Hamilton In Final Abu Dhabi GP Practice Session

Oscar Piastri led the final practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, placing McLaren at the top with teammate Lando Norris following closely. The team aims to secure the constructors’ championship on Sunday. The session began under sunny skies at 2:30 PM local time, providing drivers a last opportunity to prepare for Saturday's qualifying.

Fernando Alonso was among the first on track, expressing optimism over the radio: "I think it’s going to be a good day." Jack Doohan, making his F1 debut for Alpine, experienced some rear grip issues but managed to outpace teammate Pierre Gasly in their initial runs.

As time progressed, most drivers switched to soft tyres for their initial laps. A few opted for mediums, while RB chose hards. Kevin Magnussen set an early fastest lap of 1m 24.470s during his final weekend with Haas. George Russell expressed confusion about his Mercedes' performance, stating: "Not sure what’s going on – [the] car feels okay, just slow."

Carlos Sainz's Ferrari emitted smoke from the rear after Charles Leclerc received a grid penalty for a new energy store. Sainz resumed driving and went second fastest but was still behind Magnussen's earlier time. Alex Albon later surpassed Magnussen by 0.092s as more drivers completed their laps.

The order shifted continuously as lap times improved. Max Verstappen reported brake issues, while Leclerc lamented Ferrari's struggles. McLaren faced no such problems; Piastri posted a leading time of 1m 23.433s, staying 0.193s ahead of Norris.

Lewis Hamilton was third fastest, followed by Verstappen in fourth, Sainz in fifth, and Russell in sixth. Haas impressed by securing seventh and eighth positions with Nico Hulkenberg ahead of Magnussen. Leclerc and Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten.

Final Standings Before Qualifying

Yuki Tsunoda finished 11th for RB, with Williams' Albon and Alpine's Gasly and Doohan in 12th to 14th places respectively. Alonso took 15th place ahead of Valtteri Bottas in his final race weekend for Kick Sauber in 16th.

Liam Lawson placed his RB in P17, while Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll secured P18. Zhou Guanyu was P19 for Kick Sauber and Franco Colapinto completed the order in P20 for Williams.

The practice session concluded the weekend's preparations before teams regrouped to analyse data ahead of qualifying at 6:00 PM local time on Saturday.

With inputs from WAM