Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP3: Piastri fastest, advantage McLaren
F1 NewsSaturday, 07 December 2024 at 12:37
Oscar Piastri topped the final practice session for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as Lando Norris was second fastest with Lewis Hamilton third.
Once again, it seemed McLaren still have one hand on the 2024 Formula 1 constructors' trophy as Ferrari continued to play catch up with their Woking counterparts, but it was Piastri that was the faster of their drivers with Norris behind him.
While the McLaren drivers were close to each other, Hamilton was a bit further down in third while recently crowned four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen was fourth fastest.
Red Bull racing apparently improved Verstappen's car from Friday to Saturday, but not enough to fight for the top three in qualifying later on.
While McLaren clearly have the edge for now, it will interesting to see if they can maintain their speed for qualifying which will take place in much cooler conditions.
The fastest of the Ferraris was Carlos Sainz who was fifth fastest ahead of George Russell who continued to feel uncomfortable in his Mercedes compared to his teammate and was sixth fastest.
But the team who seemed to be enjoying the Yas Marina Circuit was Haas as Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen were seventh and eighth respectively.
Charles Leclerc was ninth in the other Ferrari while Sergio Perez was tenth.
Buildup towards FP3
FP1 was never going to be a representative session in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as it took place earlier in the day compared to qualifying and the race.
The fact that there were six young drivers taking over the seats of regulars made the first 60 minutes of running at the Yas Marina Circuit even more meaningless.
The picture was a bit clearer in FP2 as McLaren rose to the top while Ferrari are now having to deal with the troubles as Leclerc will get a ten-place grid penalty for taking a new battery.
Red Bull on the other hand were struggling with Verstappen not happy about the balance of his RB20 that was understeering all the time.
Mercedes on the other hand saw a switch in roles as Russell was the struggling driver while Hamilton was in a better place so it would be interesting the seven-time F1 champion finishes off his final weekend as a Mercedes driver.
On to FP3 and hopefully getting a clearer picture of what to expect in qualifying.
FP3 Session Highlights
The session started in sunny conditions as air temperature was 28 degrees Celsius while the track temperature was 41 degrees.
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were the first two drivers to hit the track for an outlap and then returned to the pits for Medium tyres and were off on their way again.
Other than that, the rest of the drivers and teams were more relaxed with drivers not even getting buckled up in their cars with five minutes already gone.
"I think it's going to be a good day, I have a good feeling," was the first message of the session from Alonso to his Aston Martin pitwall, a stark contrast to his closing message after FP2 about how bad his AMR24 was.
Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan soon joined the Aston Martins out on track but the pink cars had the Soft tyres bolted on them.
Over ten minutes into the session, it was only the Astons and the Alpines that had gone out on track. But almost 20 minutes into the final practice, the other drivers joined the action.
As for the tyres being used, it was a mix of Mediums, Softs, while the VCARBs went for the Hards.
Hulkenberg was third fastest in FP2 on Friday, and closing to the halfway mark of FP3, leading the timings was Magnussen. Hulkenberg then went third fastest despite a snap at Turn 12 on his timed lap.
Russell, after his first timed lap reported: "Not sure what's going on, car feels ok, just very slow."
Zhou Guanyu had a moment Perez while on a fast lap and the language he used clearly showed he was not impressed by the Mexican.
The replay showed Sainz driving around with smoke coming out of the rear of his Ferrari. More trouble for the Scuderia? The Spaniard kept going...
Russell then had a discussion with his engineer to try and find out why his car was slow without any blatant issues showing. Not the sort of situation you want to find yourself in a few hours ahead of qualifying.
The team did some change - reportedly a differential setup change - and Russell reported he was feeling much better after that as he improved from last till ninth.
Replay showed Verstappen having a moment at Turn 5 but managed to keep his car pointing in the right direction. He also exceeded the track limits.
Alex Albon, with 17 minutes remaining finally removed Magnussen from the top of the timing screes but then reported that the balance of the car had shifted on the lap. He had two purple sectors but the final was only green.
The Verstappen had his first lap on Softs and reported his brakes were "not working" and that his front axle was "not biting". He was third fastest at that point of the session, just under ten minutes from the end.
Leclerc was informed about the time of the McLarens and he responded: "We are nowhere, nowhere."
After that Norris, on a flying lap, lost control of his car at Turn 1 and then at Turn 13 and went into the run-off area. He was second fastest behind his teammate at that point.
Verstappen had another off moment at Turn 1 while on a final fast lap towards the end and the session ended with the customary practice starts.
How they finished
Piastri posted a lap time of 1:23.433 to top the final practice session of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and was 0.193s faster than Norris in second.
In third, and 0.390s off the pace, was Hamilton in he Mercedes and 0.021s clear of Verstappen who was fourth fastest in the Red Bull.
Sainz was fifth in the Ferrari with a lap time of 1:23.871, 0.204s faster than Russell in sixth.
Up next were the Haas pair, Hulkenberg in seventh, 0.660s off the pace while Magnussen was 0.001s behind the German in eighth.
Leclerc was ninth, 0.665s slower than Piastri while Perez was tenth, 0.185s behind Leclerc.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP3 Classification
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