Lando Norris topped second practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the head of a McLaren one-two with Oscar Piastri.
Norris’s flying lap on soft tires came around halfway through the hour as the sun set on the Yas Marina Circuit, It was a formidable effort, with teammate Piastri 0.234s adrift while simultaneously being similarly far ahead of the rest of the field
The Australian — who completed his first laps at the track after having surrendered his car for rookie testing in FP1 — lost the bulk of the time to his teammate in the first sector, where Piastri lost more than 0.13s to the sister car. He was otherwise more closely matched around the lap.
It bodes well for McLaren’s defense of the championship lead, with fourth place the best Ferrari could manage with Carlos Sainz, the Spaniard 0.582 off the pace.
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Charles Leclerc fared even worse, winding up sixth and 0.684s off the pace, though his only flying lap on softs was interrupted by traffic into the Turn 6-7 chicane at the top of the circuit, rendering his time unrepresentative.
The Ferrari driver was nonetheless already off the pace by the end of the first split, though the 10-place grid penalty incurred for taking a new battery in FP1 puts a greater emphasis on the Monegasque’s race pace anyway. But Leclerc harbored concerns about that, too, exclaiming McLaren are “really fast” when told of the rival team’s race pace during simulations late in the session.
Slotting between McLaren and Ferrari was Nico Hulkenberg in fourth, the Haas driver lapping 0.462s off the pace, while Lewis Hamilton split the two Ferrari drivers in fifth, the Briton 0.602s adrift.
Valtteri Bottas was seventh for Sauber, putting last week’s upgrades through their paces, ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon, who limped his Williams back to his garage with 15 minutes remaining with what the team said was a concern in the data, though the Thai driver was able to rejoin the track later in the session.
Yuki Tsunoda completed the top 10 for RB just 0.006s ahead of teammate Liam Lawson.
Pierre Gasly was 12th fastest for Alpine ahead of George Russell, while Sergio Perez led the way on a troubled evening for Red Bull Racing in 14th.
Zhou Guanyu and Fernando Alonso followed in 15th and 16th, beating a miserable Max Verstappen. The Dutchman was 1.081s off the pace after complaining of serious drivability issues with his Red Bull Racing car, including “ridiculous” understeer.
The car’s recalcitrance saw him clambering over the curbs at Turn 3 late in the session, triggering fears he might have damaged his plank, but he completed the session without intervention.
Lance Stroll was 18th for Aston Martin ahead of Alpine debutant Jack Doohan and Williams rookie Franco Colapinto, whose session ended after just 10 laps when the Argentine clattered over the curbs at Turn 9 and did considerable damage to his floor.
