Lando Norris said any hopes for him to chase down Max Verstappen and win this year’s Formula 1 drivers’ championship were “a little far-fetched” as he accepted official honors for finishing as runner-up. Verstappen had a comfortable lead after …
Lando Norris said any hopes for him to chase down Max Verstappen and win this year’s Formula 1 drivers’ championship were “a little far-fetched” as he accepted official honors for finishing as runner-up.
Verstappen had a comfortable lead after winning seven of the first 10 races this season, before Norris threatened a challenge as the Red Bull driver went 10 races without a victory. Norris had cut the deficit to 47 points — still nearly two race victories — heading into the race weekend at Interlagos, but a Verstappen win in the wet all but ended the battle and Norris believes it wasn’t realistic to expect him to overturn such a big margin.
“I was never close enough to Max,” Norris said at the FIA Prize Giving in Rwanda. “I think if anyone thought I was going to get it, that was probably a little far-fetched. But at the same time, we tried for as long as possible — I tried.”
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Norris won the final round in Abu Dhabi to secure the constructors’ championship for McLaren, and CEO Zak Brown says both he and teammate Oscar Piastri were central to that achievement.
“Andrea [Stella, team principal] has done an unbelievable job leading this racing team, we have two awesome racing drivers, as we’ve said from the word go, and all the men and women at McLaren have done a wonderful job,” Brown said.
“I think to go down to the wire, against Ferrari — if you had one team to pick to go down to the last lap with, Ferrari would be it — and they did an unbelievable job. They kept us honest the whole way through.”
From Stella’s perspective, a first constructors’ championship success as a team principal is a new experience after being part of the Ferrari dominance of the mid-2000s.
“It’s different from many points of view,” Stella said. “It’s different because this championship means taking McLaren to success after 26 years. So, a long time without celebrations.
“It’s different for me personally — a completely different role — and it’s different because it’s unprecedented how rapidly we evolved from being last last year after the first couple of races. We had zero points, last in the classification, and now 666 and world champions.”
Lando Norris says he will take increased self-belief from this season into the Formula 1 drivers’ championship fight in 2025. McLaren won the constructors’ championship as a result of Norris’ victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but Norris himself …
Lando Norris says he will take increased self-belief from this season into the Formula 1 drivers’ championship fight in 2025.
McLaren won the constructors’ championship as a result of Norris’ victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but Norris himself fell out of title contention for the drivers’ crown in Las Vegas two races earlier. With Max Verstappen securing a fourth straight championship, Norris says he has learned in 2024 that he has the tools to win a title and is motivated by the idea of being able to set such a target from the start of next season.
“I think the one thing I’ve learned this year is probably to believe in myself a bit more,” Norris said. “I’ve certainly not come out on top as often as I would have liked in certain moments as a driver, especially in my fights against Max.
“As much as it hurts sometimes, I’m probably happy about it now that I’m going to go into next season knowing that I can fight. And I know myself –more and better than anyone — what I need to improve on, where I’m not strong enough, where I’m strong enough.
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“I’m always open for criticism, things like that, but I’m the one who knows better than the others, right? So not in an arrogant way or a selfish way, but I know that I have to improve in a lot of areas and certain things.
“I feel like I’ve already done that quite a lot in the last three, four, five races. I feel like I’ve delivered some very strong results. But on the whole, next year is hopefully a year where I can go in and decide before the first race we’re going to fight for a championship. We’ve not ever thought of that.
“We’ve not even had the feeling of it from a team perspective and also for me as a driver. So hopefully next year is that year. We obviously have a lot of work to do — Ferrari are going to be pushing a lot.”
Norris provided a message on team radio after winning in Abu Dhabi, saying, “Next year is going to be my year too” and he says the confidence he has taken from 2024 leads him to believe he can deliver on that claim.
“I fancied it already this year but it was just a little too late,” he said. “I definitely have had things to improve on and to look back on and to try and correct and to improve, but nevertheless I think the thing that I’ve learned and gained the most this year is confidence in myself.
“It sounds very simple, I’ve just always been quite the opposite kind of guy — I need to go out and prove it to myself before I want to start believing anything. This year I’ve learned that. Yeah, I made some mistakes and I didn’t give a good-enough fight to Max, but it was a good effort and the one thing I’ve learned from it is I have what it takes.
“That’s not an overconfident saying. That’s ‘I know I made my mistakes, I know what I’m capable of doing, and I know if I can improve on these things it’s definitely possible.’ So I’m excited. As much as I want this season now to end and to go and have a holiday, I’m also already looking forward to next year.”
Recency bias really can lessen the impact of certain achievements, and McLaren’s constructors’ championship success can certainly be put into that category. Ever since a major upgrade took the team from point-scorers to race-winners in Miami earlier …
Recency bias really can lessen the impact of certain achievements, and McLaren’s constructors’ championship success can certainly be put into that category.
Ever since a major upgrade took the team from point-scorers to race-winners in Miami earlier this year, expectations have rapidly grown to the point that it almost became viewed as a failure if McLaren was not to win the constructors’ crown.
A first success in 26 years is a huge achievement, but it also needs viewing in the context of where the team has come from in recent years.
When Zak Brown joined as McLaren Racing CEO at the end of 2016, the relationship with Honda as power unit supplier was strained at best. McLaren was pointing the finger at the Japanese manufacturer, and still living in blissful ignorance that it was a front-running team.
The switch to Renault power in 2018 exposed the truth, that the team was far from stable or operating at the levels required to produce a car capable of competing for victories on a regular basis. There were multiple arrivals and departures in the following years, a new power unit deal with Mercedes and a number of restructurings. I remember writing after the latest one – at the start of the 2023 season – that if this technical set-up didn’t produce results, then the focus would have to turn to Brown himself and the decisions he’d been making.
A switch to Renault power in 2018 highlighted McLaren’s fundamental issues. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
At that point, in early March, McLaren was enduring its worst start to a season since 2017. On pure pace, it was nowhere near the points in the first two races. After the eighth round of that season, the Canadian Grand Prix, it had scored just 19 points, and was 302 adrift of Red Bull.
Then it all started to click with an update introduced in Austria that catapulted McLaren to the front of the grid. Team principal Andrea Stella had been adamant there would be a major step forward, but this was a jump that few could even believe.
And the reality was that there was nearly a scenario where the team wouldn’t have been in a position to deliver the upgrade at all.
“We were definitely on the brink,” Zak Brown says of the end of 2020. “We were paying all our bills. But we were months away, and not several months – we knew we could make it through the year. But we were in a situation where if we didn’t have a cash injection, we would have been at risk starting the year.
“I needed to protect the team from them being aware, so everyone could remain in the very positive, energetic spirits they were bringing, because the team was progressing nicely.
“It wasn’t a comfortable place at all. But also I was always confident the shareholders would never let it get there. But it was also clear we needed the investment. I could put my head on a pillow at night knowing they would back us up if they have to. But it was going to be the ninth innings, to use a baseball term, before they brought in the relief pitcher.”
That pitching change came in the form of a near-$250m cash injection, primarily from MSP Sports Capital. Against that backdrop, having a car that won a race and took a pole position in 2021 was impressive. Having another that was a solid midfield runner amid the huge regulatory change in 2022 was just as much so.
But to do what the team has done since is pretty remarkable, and in a cost cap era, a significant part of that comes down to personnel.
“Andrea’s been brilliant,” Brown says. “I think it’s also about getting the right people. Because I think in any sports team, you can hire all the big names, and then we’re also seeing teams where you don’t have a bunch of big names punch above their weight, because they’re just an awesome team.
“So we’ve been able to create an awesome teamwork culture. When I joined McLaren, the friction between the leadership – and it was all kind of new to me, I could see a lack of respect amongst some of the senior leaders, and they blamed each other.
“I said ‘we’re all working on the same race car, so let’s work together to fix this race car. ’And now Pete Prodromou, Rob Marshall, Neil Houldley, Mark Temple, Piers Thynne, all those, of course led by Andrea Stella, they get along great. We do lunches, dinners, lunch in the canteen, laughing, we’re working together, so it’s a really good atmosphere.”
From the outside, that evolution atmosphere over the past few years has been clear to see. Multiple team members have admitted thinking about stopping working in F1 but failing to do so because of the enjoyment being part of this McLaren era. Approaches from rivals face a big ask enticing personnel away, such is the environment that has been created.
Lando Norris summed it up himself when reflecting on the success McLaren is having in Abu Dhabi, having become a McLaren reserve in 2018 and stepped up to a race seat a year later.
“We made progress, stepped back, made progress, stepped back,” Norris says of the initial years. “Nothing ever clicked, really, and never continued to grow. And it was hard just to break that barrier of getting close to Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull, because for such a long period of time, they’ve been the guys who have dominated Formula 1.
“Now, not only have we broken that barrier over the last year and a half, we’ve risen to the top of it and to become the best team and leading. I don’t think, simply from the outside, people would give McLaren and my team enough credit for what they’ve done, what they’ve turned around, because it’s not an easy sport.
Norris began to reap the rewards of his belief in McLaren with victory in Miami. Steven Tee/Motorsport Images
“It may look simple at times from the outside – and even I think sometimes things are more simple than what they look – but to go from where we were to outdo… Ferrari have turned things around a lot over the last couple of years and to catch Red Bull, which I’ve said a couple of times, and Max, who one year ago dominated every race. for that to flip around so much, we can only just give a hats off to the whole team, because a lot of things have changed.
“People have come and gone, and Andrea has done an incredible job. So to be part of this whole story, to be part of it not long after Zak joined McLaren and started changing things and making McLaren into a slightly more happy place than it was prior, I’ve been along the journey with Zak, and we’ve gone through a lot of things together, highs and lows and emotional times.
“So it definitely has been a longer rise to get to where we are, which has been fun and I’ve really loved it and I’ve enjoyed it. And I think the thing I’ll be proudest and most happy about is the fact I’m still here. The fact I’m still in papaya because I believed in the team for many years. I had opportunities to not be in papaya and to maybe go on and win races at an earlier stage in my career and those kind of things.
“I had those opportunities, but I believed and I wanted to simply do it with McLaren. I wanted to do it with the guys who gave me my opportunity in Formula 1. And as much as we didn’t think it was going to be possible this year, we were hoping for next year, next year was our kind of in-line target, on-paper target. The fact we’re doing it this year is an even bigger achievement.”
On-track, regulatory changes have certainly closed the field up, and customer teams are no longer at the disadvantage they used to be because the rules dictate they must get the same equipment as the supplier. But McLaren has created a new identity in the post-Ron Dennis era, become a team people really want to work for again, and then matched that image with a technical team that has rapidly developed a race-winning car, and a race team and drivers that have made use of it.
Even before a constructors’ championship provided the ultimate validation of the work being done, Brown knew he had something special beneath him that he needs to protect.
“Andrea has a phrase, ‘no poison biscuits’, which you can get inside a team or you can get the competitive teams rolling those poison biscuits in,” Brown says. “He’s got this winners-losers mindset. A loser’s mindset, something goes wrong, you start blaming everyone. We’re a team, and that’s what I need to keep together, because that is what the competition tries to disrupt.”
I’m not quite sure what goes into poison biscuits, but what is clear is that rival teams will be trying to understand all the ingredients that have made McLaren a title-winning team once again, because it has been some turnaround.
Lando Norris admits he was nervous about McLaren’s title hopes after Oscar Piastri was hit at the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, before taking the win that secured the constructors’ championship for the team. McLaren started with both drivers on …
Lando Norris admits he was nervous about McLaren’s title hopes after Oscar Piastri was hit at the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, before taking the win that secured the constructors’ championship for the team.
McLaren started with both drivers on the front row and knowing a win would guarantee the title even if Ferrari finished second and third. Such a result for the Scuderia looked unlikely with Charles Leclerc starting on the back row, but Piastri was hit by Max Verstappen at Turn 1 and Leclerc had a brilliant first lap, putting the pressure on Norris to deliver.
“I’m very, very happy, just as I’m sure everyone in the team is,” Norris said. “Today was a very special day for all of us. It was ours to lose today — and I’m sure at certain moments, people thought that it was not far away from being lost. Two Ferraris up there, and Charles did a great job to get back to the podium.
“Oscar was super unlucky — he got taken out in Turn 1 — so for a minute, my heart was like, ‘Oh God, it’s not looking as likely.’ But if I just keep my head down and keep focused, I knew I could deliver and do what I’ve got to do.
“But the bigger picture of us winning a championship for the first time in 26 years — you wouldn’t have thought that when you say the name McLaren, it feels wrong to say that they’ve not won a championship in 26 years. But for me to be part of that, for Oscar to be part of it, is something we’re incredibly proud of. And delivering that for the team has put the biggest smiles possible on everyone’s face.
“This is the biggest reward you can give back to everyone who designs the car, builds the car, gets the partners; everyone has played such a big part. So, just proud. Of course, I’m happy I finished the season this way, but I’m way more happy for the team than I am for myself.”
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Norris admits he was checking the status of the race on the screens around the track and as soon as he saw Leclerc making progress, he was aware of how tense the situation was while he also struggled to shake off Carlos Sainz in the first half of the race.
“I was watching the TV screens and I saw Charles was P8 after lap 1. So I was a little bit nervous, but I knew I just had to focus on myself, put my head down and Carlos was never far away. I think the biggest the gap was 4.2 seconds in the first 10 and that’s not a very nice gap in my opinion. It’s a bit too close for my comfort.
“So it was a tricky race and I’m sure there was probably a lot more nervous people on the pit wall and in the garage knowing what was at stake. And I got the adrenaline of the car and focused on that. For them, they’re just sitting and watching the screens and they have a lot more time to think about what can go wrong and all of that.
“A shame for Oscar. We really wanted to have a 1-2 today and finish and let McLaren be on top today as a team in a race, but also for a championship. I felt quite bad for him — it wasn’t his fault, but he’s had a great year. So we’ll all celebrate together. I certainly am and I’ll have some fun.”
Lando Norris closed out the Formula 1 season by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at a canter to secure McLaren its first constructors’ championship since 1998. Norris got the perfect launch from pole position to establish a healthy lead over the …
Lando Norris closed out the Formula 1 season by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at a canter to secure McLaren its first constructors’ championship since 1998.
Norris got the perfect launch from pole position to establish a healthy lead over the field early, but McLaren’s comfortable grip on the title trophy momentarily slackened when teammate Oscar Piastri, starting second, was spun around by Max Verstappen into the first turn.
Verstappen had optimistically lunged for second place into the left-hander, his front-right wheel tagging Piastri’s rear left to send both cars spinning off the track. Verstappen rejoined 11th, while Piastri resumed in 20th and last.
Ferrari, meanwhile, was capitalizing on the first-lap carnage.
Carlos Sainz, starting third, threaded the needle between the spinning Piastri and Verstappen to take second, while teammate Charles Leclerc completed an epic 11-place rise on the first lap to put himself eighth and in unlikely podium contention.
The highlight of Leclerc’s barnstorming first lap was picking up four places with a single around-the-outside move into the chicane splitting the back straights. The quadruple pass was facilitated by Valtteri Bottas tagging Sergio Perez on the apex of Turn 6 just before Leclerc arrived on the scene. The Finn, facing the final grand prix of his career, tipped Perez — also possibly facing his last F1 race — into a clumsy spin.
Disaster right off the bat for Piastri and McLaren MCL38, while Verstappen and Red Bull also paid a heavy price. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
The Mexican retired almost on the spot, for which Bottas copped a 10s penalty, ensured Red Bull Racing could finish no higher than third on the constructors’ title table. It’s the first time in more than 40 years the season’s best driver has raced for the team third or lower in the championship.
Perez’s stoppage caused a virtual safety car that left Leclerc in eighth, though he was upwardly mobile immediately once racing resumed, passing his way up to a net fourth place shortly before his first pit stop and passing Pierre Gasly for third on the following laps.
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Ferrari could overhaul McLaren’s 21-point advantage with both cars on the podium, but one of them had to win the race. So long as Norris controlled the top spot, McLaren’s lead was safe.
Hoping to unseat the Briton, Ferrari rolled the dice with Sainz at his sole pit stop, hauling him in on lap 25. He had been trailing Norris by around 3.5s before his stop, but a ferocious out-lap ensured he was within 2s of the Briton after McLaren followed suit on the following lap.
With his tires already up to temperate, the Spaniard briefly threatened to battle for the lead, potentially turning the title race on its head. But after only a few more laps Norris was able to get heat into his rubber to begin re-establishing his original buffer. The growth was fractional but unstoppable, and by the end of the race it had ballooned to 5.8s. In taking the checkered flag, Norris secured his team its first constructors’ title in more than a quarter of a century.
“It feels incredible,” Norris said. “Not for myself but for the whole team. The team have done an amazing job this year to come from where we were at the beginning.
“I’m so proud of everyone. It’s been a lovely journey, and to end the season like this is perfect. For us to win a constructors’ [championship] after 26 years is pretty special.”
Sainz finished a strong but ultimately ineffectual second in his final grand prix for Ferrari, unable to go with Norris for most of the race.
“Obviously a bit of a bittersweet feeling,” he said. “In the end I think it was the maximum we could do today given the pace of Lando and McLaren. I gave it everything.
“I think we can be proud of the effort and the championship we put together. It’s been a tough year, but definitely a year we need to be proud of.”
Leclerc completed a mammoth 16-place recovery from 19th on the grid to third at the flag. His rise was entirely self-made, with 11 places gained on the first lap alone and without the benefit of a safety car or other significant interruption to bunch up the field to his benefit.
“I knew I had to be very aggressive,” he said. “I knew that in lap 1 I had to take all the risks possible in order to gain as many places as possible to then be in a good position for the rest of the race. This was achieved, but then unfortunately we were just starting too far back to do anything better than what we’ve done today.
“We’ve just come short of our goal, which is a shame, but at the end we’ve tried everything.”
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth to cap off a brilliant recovery from 16th on the grid. The seven-time champion, who will depart Mercedes at the end of the year, gained four places on the first lap and was feisty throughout the race to rise to fifth behind teammate George Russell with two laps remaining. A gutsy around-the-outside move at the parabolic Turn 9 sealed his 12-place recovery, leading Russell home for a Mercedes four-five.
Verstappen finished sixth after serving a 10s penalty for punting Piastri off the track on the first lap.
Gasly finished seventh for Alpine ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, securing the French-owned squad sixth in the constructors’ championship ahead of Haas.
Fernando Alonso ground out ninth as the highest-placed driver to finish the race with two stops, while Oscar Piastri completed the top 10, also with two stops, after serving a 10s penalty of his own for rear-ending Franco Colapinto shortly after the virtual safety car period ended. It forced Colapinto into a pit stop with a rear puncture, and the Argentine later retired with a suspected power unit issue.
Alex Albon finished 11th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, Lance Stroll, debutant Jack Doohan and Kevin Magnussen, who set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap as a parting gift from his Haas team.
Liam Lawson was classified 17th after stopping on track three laps from home, his car smoking along the back straight.
Lando Norris wants to secure the constructors’ title with a victory for McLaren, and says he is ready for a battle with former teammate Carlos Sainz in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Sainz is set to start his final race for Ferrari before being replaced …
Lando Norris wants to secure the constructors’ title with a victory for McLaren, and says he is ready for a battle with former teammate Carlos Sainz in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Sainz is set to start his final race for Ferrari before being replaced by Lewis Hamilton, and is trying to help it outscore McLaren by 21 points to win the constructors’ championship. Norris will start from pole ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri after McLaren locked out the front row, and the British driver says he’s expecting a fired-up Sainz on Sunday but won’t back down from a fight for victory.
“We’ve got to beat Ferrari,” Norris said. “That’s the aim, but we want to do it in style and we want to win.
“But we’re here to win everywhere it’s possible, and tomorrow we’re going to have a good chance, at least with one of our cars, and we’ll be giving it everything we’ve got, knowing in the back of our minds what we really have to do to achieve our big goals.
“I feel like Zak [Brown, McLaren Racing CEO] is probably more nervous that we’re first and second than if we were not, so… It gives us good knowledge that the car is great, of course. I think we’ve both been driving well this weekend, and we knew the pressure was on, from ourselves. So we’ve both performed well. We’ve both got everything out of the car.
“But this is a long race, and many things can happen. So we’re definitely not going to get ahead of ourselves. We know we have a little bit of a gap in terms of positions. We’re in a much more fortunate position than what Ferrari are. [Sainz] is going to be putting up a good fight for his final race with Ferrari. You know, he’s going to want to prove his point. And I’m excited to battle if that’s the case.”
It was Max Verstappen who was on provisional pole position after the first Q3 runs and Norris admits McLaren faced a tougher test than he’d been expecting once qualifying started.
“Quali was a bit of a struggle, honestly. We just expected, probably, to be a little bit better than what we were,” he said. “The weekend so far has been quite straightforward from our side. It just seems like everyone caught up a lot come qualifying, and we had to start pushing a lot more.
“It was a good lap. It was not the cleanest, but sometimes when you’re close enough to the edge and it’s just a little bit untidy, sometimes it’s actually quite a nice place to be. So I had a couple snaps, and I had a big snap into [Turn] 9, the high speed. I just made a mistake. That hurt me a touch, but otherwise it was a nice lap.
“I put the rest of it together pretty well. Just not an easy circuit to do. We had a bit to gain in quali, because Max was looking a little bit quicker than us through the most part of it. So I knew I had to pull something out.”
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have locked out the front row at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to keep McLaren on track to claim its first Formula 1 constructors’ championship since 1998. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz qualified third, but the Italian team’s …
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have locked out the front row at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to keep McLaren on track to claim its first Formula 1 constructors’ championship since 1998.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz qualified third, but the Italian team’s hopes of overturning its 21-point deficit to McLaren took a considerable blow when Charles Leclerc was knocked out of Q2 after having a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits. He will start a disastrous 19th after serving a power unity penalty for taking on a new hybrid battery.
Leclerc won’t be alone among the front-runners at the back of the grid, with Lewis Hamilton set to start 16th after running over a bollard on his final lap of Q1.
The battle for pole position came down to the McLaren drivers and Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull Racing car came good in Q2, helping the Dutchman to provisional pole after the first laps of Q3. But Verstappen’s advantage — 0.004s over Norris and 0.04s over Piastri — was an illusion. Whereas his time had been set on fresh soft tires, the McLaren drivers’ opening volleys — and Sainz’s first effort, good enough for fourth — were on used rubber. With all drivers back on fresh tires, there was no real competition.
Norris improved by almost 0.4s to rocket to top spot, besting teammate Piastri by 0.209s to take his eighth pole of the season, equaling Verstappen’s 2024 haul.
With Ferrari needing an almost perfect result to have any hope of erasing McLaren’s advantage, the emphatic qualifying result puts the team in a powerful position heading into Sunday.
“A perfect day for us,” Norris said. “We’ve been very quick all weekend, and we’re pleased with the one-two. My lap in the end was strong. That’s just how we wanted to end today.
“We’ve got to beat Ferrari, that’s the aim, but we want to do it in style, and we want to win — I want to win.
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Piastri couldn’t find the same gains on fresh rubber, improving by only 0.15s, but the Australian was pleased to be part of an important McLaren front-row lockout.
“I think we took a while to find our feet in qualifying, but we got there in the end,” he said. “A great result for the team. I’m happy with that.
“My last lap, I wish I could’ve had it again, but that’s OK. P2 is still a good spot. Obviously for the team first and second is the dream, so let’s keep it going for tomorrow.”
Sainz was Ferrari’s lone top-10 representative and 0.229s off pole but was pleased with the Italian team’s progress from Friday and vowed to push to the checkered flag in pursuit of the title.
“I think McLaren have shown all weekend that they’re a bit of a step ahead compared to everyone, really, and we’re just 0.2s or 0.3s off,” he said. “But still, a race to do tomorrow and we will give it everything to see if we can win that race and give ourselves the best chance.”
Nico Hulkenberg qualified a sensational fourth for Haas after briefly having taken provisional pole at the beginning of the final runs of Q3. It puts the American team in a strong position to overturn Alpine’s five-point advantage for sixth in the constructors’ standings. The German, however, will face the stewards after the session for overtaking in the pit exit, contrary to the race director’s notes.
Verstappen bottomed out in fifth after failing to improve with his second lap, ending up 0.35s off the pace. Pierre Gasly was sixth for Alpine and only 0.039s further back.
George Russell was a massive 0.537s off the pace on a difficult night for Mercedes, beating Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas — in his and Sauber’s first Q3 appearance since April’s Chinese Grand Prix — and Sergio Perez to complete the top 10.
RB teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson will start 11th and 12th ahead of Lance Stroll in 13th.
Leclerc was left in a crestfallen 14th after exceeding track limits at Turn 1 with his final Q2 lap, which had been the fastest of the segment before being expunged by the stewards.
Kevin Magnussen qualified 15th but will inherit a place from the penalized Leclerc. The Dane will start ahead of Zhou Guanyu, who was 17th fastest, and Hamilton after his bollard-induced Q1 exit.
F1’s most prolific qualifier had already started his lap imperfectly, compromising his preparation for having needed to rush to the start line, but his middle sector was at least a personal best that had him on a trajectory to sneak into Q2.
But Hamilton’s work was undone at Turn 14, where Magnussen knocked an apex bollard onto the track while trying to make himself scarce ahead of the fast-moving Mercedes. Hamilton had no time to react, collecting the bollard underneath his front wing.
It cost him 0.263s in the final sector relative to his personal best, locking him into 18th in the order and his third Q1 knockout in the last six races, but the Briton took responsibility for leaving himself vulnerable in the first place.
“Messed that up big time, guys,” he said. “That was bad, man. Jesus.”
Jack Doohan — who was slowest in his first F1 qualifying session — will start 17th ahead of Alex Albon, who was 16th fastest but must serve a gearbox penalty so will start 18th. Leclerc — who was penalized to 19th for changing his hybrid battery — and Franco Colapinto, who was 19th fastest but will drop to last on the grid, also with a gearbox penalty – complete the field.
Oscar Piastri led a comfortable McLaren one-two ahead of teammate Lando Norris in the final practice session of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, while title rival Ferrari remained almost half a second off the pace. The final practice hour of the season was …
Oscar Piastri led a comfortable McLaren one-two ahead of teammate Lando Norris in the final practice session of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, while title rival Ferrari remained almost half a second off the pace.
The final practice hour of the season was a subdued affair, with conditions in the late afternoon unrepresentative of the night-time qualifying session later today or Sunday’s twilight race, with the ambient temperature creeping about 104 degrees F.
After some early exploratory laps, Piastri set the pace on a fresh set of soft tires at 1m23.433s, beating teammate Norris by 0.193s, inverting the order of McLaren’s one-two in FP2 on Friday night.
Lewis Hamilton unexpectedly slotted into third after improving on a second performance run on a used set of softs, though he was still 0.39s off the pace, while Max Verstappen, who complained of a lack of bite from his front brakes, was 0.411s off the pace in fourth.
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The best constructors’ championship contender Ferrari could muster was fifth with Carlos Sainz, who was 0.438s slower than Piastri’s leading McLaren. Charles Leclerc, who carries a 10-place grid penalty into the grand prix for a battery change, was ninth fastest and 0.665s of the pace.
“We are nowhere. Nowhere,” Leclerc said over team radio when told of his gap to the front.
George Russell was a confused sixth, the Mercedes driver 0.642s off the pace and around 0.2s adrift from the leading five cars. The Briton, who started last weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix from pole position, was mystified as to his lack of pace.
“I’m not sure what’s going on,” he radioed early in the session. “The car feels OK, just very slow.
“I don’t really know why the pace is so bad. Everything feels reasonably normal, it’s just all slow.”
Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen were closely matched, the Haas teammates separated by just 0.001s and less than 0.02s slower than Russell. The German and Dane wedged themselves ahead of Leclerc, who trailed by 0.004s.
Sergio Perez completed the top 10 in the second Red Bull Racing car, lapping 0.85s off the pace and 0.439s slower than teammate Verstappen.
Yuki Tsunoda was 11th for RB at the head of a super tight group of eight cars spread over less than 0.2s.
Alex Albon put his Williams 12th and just 0.035s off the pace, with Pierre Gasly following for Alpine a further 0.03s adrift.
Jack Doohan, who teased that he’d left plenty of time on the table on Friday in pursuit of a smooth build-up to qualifying, improved massively overnight relative to his teammate, lapping just 0.026s slower than Gasly.
Valtteri Bottas was 16th ahead of Liam Lawson and Lance Stroll, the trio split by 0.052s.
Zhou Guanyu was 19th and 1.235s off the pace, the Chinese driver around 0.1s ahead of Williams rookie Franco Colapinto at the back of the pack.
Lando Norris insists McLaren is not comfortably quicker than the rest of the field at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as its constructors’ title hopes took a boost due to a penalty for Charles Leclerc. Ferrari had to change the energy store in Leclerc’s …
Lando Norris insists McLaren is not comfortably quicker than the rest of the field at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as its constructors’ title hopes took a boost due to a penalty for Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari had to change the energy store in Leclerc’s car during FP1, triggering a 10-place grid penalty that further reduces its chances of overturning a 21-point deficit to McLaren in the fight for the constructors’ championship. Norris then duly went fastest in FP2 — the main representative practice session of the weekend — ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri, but downplayed how good the standings made the team look.
“The car’s been feeling good the whole day, so we continued our pace out of Qatar and it feels strong,” Norris said. “I definitely think we have some things to improve on both low and high fuel [loads], probably more so the high fuel.
“It certainly looks better than it is. I don’t think any of the others turned up their engines yet, so it might look glorious for now but I think we’re still going to have a tough fight tomorrow.”
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Even so, Norris acknowledged the areas he wants to make progress on are more a case of fine-tuning than major weaknesses that McLaren is facing.
“It’s nothing huge; it’s small things,” he said. “It’s trying to find a balance going quicker but saving the tires, especially in the longer-run stuff. Where can you push more and where do you need to save? How can you save the tires more with driving, with the toys I can change on my steering wheel, the underlying balance of the car? Just trying to find the right compromise is the main thing.”
Team principal Andrea Stella says the penalty for Leclerc doesn’t take any pressure off McLaren as it looks to secure a first constructors’ title since 1998.
“Not at all,” Stella said. “I guess you expected this answer! Not at all. We talk about Charles Leclerc. We talk about Ferrari. It’s a very strong combination. I think even with the penalty, I wouldn’t be surprised if we can see them very rapidly fighting for the front, for the top positions. So nothing changes. We keep remaining calm, focused and full of energy.”
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 …
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.
