Oscar Piastri heads another McLaren 1-2 in final practice
McLaren continue fine start to potential-title winning weekend, reports Lewis Larkam in Abu Dhabi.
McLaren continued their perfect start in their bid to win the F1 constructors’ championship by claiming another 1-2 in final practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Woking-based outfit come into the season finale 21 points clear of Ferrari and looking to secure their first constructors’ world title since 1998, as well as a first F1 championship trophy since 2008.
In FP3 it was Oscar Piastri’s turn to top the timesheet, 0.193 seconds clear of teammate Lando Norris.
Lewis Hamilton emerged as McLaren’s nearest challenger in his final practice session for Mercedes, with the seven-time world champion ending up 0.390s adrift in third.
But it is McLaren who go into qualifying as the clear favourites for pole, after setting the pace in two of the three practice sessions at the Yas Marina circuit.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took fourth ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and George Russell, who complained about his Mercedes car being “slow” throughout the session.
The Haas pair of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen were an encouraging seventh and eighth as the American team looks to overhaul Alpine in the battle for P6 in the constructors’.
Charles Leclerc, who will serve a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s grand prix because Ferrari needed to fit a new battery to his car and exceeded his allowance for the season, was ninth-quickest.
Sergio Perez, who appears to be taking part in his final race for Red Bull, completed the top-10, ahead of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon’s Williams and the Alpine duo of Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan, who has replaced the Haas-bound Esteban Ocon to make an early F1 debut ahead of his rookie campaign next year.
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