F1 Abu Dhabi GP: Piastri leads 1-2 from McLaren FP3 as Ferrari are “nowhere”

Oscar Piastri scored another McLaren 1-2 in third practice for the Formula 1 season finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton third and Max Verstappen fourth.

There was very little action at the start of the one-hour session, with the two Aston Martin cars only coming out for long installation visits in the opening minutes.

Pierre Gasly and Jacques Doohan emerged at the end of the opening 10 minutes and set benchmarks at 1m26.040s and 1m25.633s respectively – with the former pulling particularly hard on his Alpine plank along the curb and at the end of the long Turn 5. Got out of the hairpin. Of other sectors.

Aston then emerged again and Lance Stroll took top position with a 1m25.528 seconds, Fernando Alonso was initially close behind with the opening flying lap on the softs, with most teams running early on that feature, allowing them to avoid the lows. Had to shake for. -Flying seagull.

As the opening third laps ended, Zhou Guanyu overtook Sauber before Kevin Magnussen put Haas in first with a 1m24.470s and Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton appeared on the mediums.

By this stage the frontrunners had joined the race, but only Lando Norris troubled the leading times – his initial attempt on the softs was coming down by more than 0.3s on Magnussen – the biggest issue with Mercedes was that Hamilton was unable to control his steering. Wanted to remove a motivational sticker from behind the wheel. ,

Magnussen’s time lasted until the start of the final third of the session, with Alex Albon gaining more than 0.6s over the Dane and moving from 12th to first with a 1m24.378.

Next, George Russell, who had been complaining about his pace since very early in the session, led with a 1m24.075s, before Piastri edged the McLaren by 0.642s.

Norris could do no better than 1m23.433 seconds with his next flyer, with the Briton sitting almost 0.2 seconds behind his teammate, a short while later Verstappen moved up to third with all cars on soft.

Piastri and Norris tried again on the used softs as the final five minutes began, but apart from the Australian’s personal best in midfield there was no improvement, with his teammates running off track at Turns 1 and 13. And were struggling with oversteer. ,

The leaders then went back to the pits, with Hamilton’s late effort overtaking Verstappen and 0.390s behind Piastri – despite the Mercedes also being fitted with the softs.
Sainz finished fifth behind the pair of Russell and Haas – Nico Hulkenberg moved ahead of Magnussen with a new-soft performance much later in FP3.

Charles Leclerc declared Ferrari “nowhere” in its battle with McLaren for the Constructors’ Championship, with the Monegasque driver – who will take a 10-place grid drop from wherever he qualifies at Yas Marina on Saturday – ninth and off the pace. 0.665 seconds less than .

Sergio Pérez joined the top 10 for Red Bull.

Photos from Qatar Grand Prix Final practice