The Friday in F1 Abu Dhabi GP saw Lando Norris with the advantage even though the Brit wanted more, ahead of rivals Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri.
It was a decent start for McLaren’s Lando Norris on Friday in F1 Abu Dhabi GP at Yas Marina circuit. He set the pace in both the practice sessions, but didn’t feel 100% comfortable as he yearned for more. It was positive but he wants a bit more to extract the maximum on Saturday.
Teammate Oscar Piastri got only FP2 to run and found himself outside the Top 10. He felt good on the medium compound, but didn’t get the grip on the soft tyre run. He doesn’t see it as a big issue, neither does Red Bull’s Max Verstappen after his running. He was second in both the sessions.
It was a decent outing as per the Dutchman, but he reckons Red Bull will need to find a bit more pace to challenge McLaren. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda had the one session in FP2 and he termed it as his ‘worst’ of all in F1 2025. He found no grip and was sliding around across the circuit.
Mercedes’ George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli found some improvements from FP1 to FP2 to be in a respectable position, but they are wary of unusual competition from midfield teams. That includes Ferrari where both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton did not readily had a good run.
Norris: “I mean obviously from the times and everything, things look good at the minute, but I still want a bit more from the car. I’m not completely happy, not completely confident. We’re a bit in the middle of trying some different things and trying to understand some things with the car. Hopefully there’s some more stuff we can get out of it overnight. It’s not been a bad day, for sure, it’s been a positive day, but we always know it gets a lot closer going into quali, so nothing to smile about just yet.”
Piastri: “I think I got there pretty well on the medium [tyres] – just the softs didn’t get the most out of the grip on that first timed lap. Finding my feet, I think, but clearly some things to try and improve for tomorrow. But I think after just one session, not too bad. I think it’s more just little details. The car feels like it’s in a pretty decent place, again just didn’t get the grip out of it in that first soft lap. Some small tweaks, of course – it didn’t feel perfect out there, but nothing major. I think pretty good. I think the car’s looked quick – just need to get some more laps under my belt and find my feet a bit more really, that’s all. A few more laps tomorrow, a few more sets of tyres, hopefully we’ll be there.”
Verstappen: “Pretty okay. I was fairly happy with the car, we just need to be probably a little bit faster! I think still not quick enough, but I think overall we’ve been in – for us – a decent window around here. That’s a constant fight that we have, but that’s nothing new. It seems like it’s a decent gap that we need to close, but from our side we’ll just try to put the best car forward. Let’s see how much we can find overnight. No, no. Single lap and long run needs to be better.”
Russell: “We didn’t start off the day in the best place in FP1, but we were able to improve the car for FP2. In the hot conditions of the day, the car doesn’t always feel at its nicest, but it improves once the sun goes down and the track cools a little. That certainly helped along with the changes we made between the sessions. It looks like it will be tight between the usual suspects at the front in qualifying tomorrow, but there could be some surprises in the mix including the Haas of Ollie Bearman and both Saubers who were quick today. We will have to execute well if we are to secure a good grid position. Equally, we’ve got work to do on our race pace; we will review tonight how we can improve that, and we will see where that leaves us on Sunday.”
Hamilton: “Thankful! No, I feel okay. I think obviously Arthur did a good job this morning. It’s always cool to watch youngsters come through and do what they do and see them shine. That ultimately puts whoever misses the session on a little bit of back foot, but I did my best to get up to speed as quick as possible, and obviously [I’ve] been faced with quite a difficult balance in this session so we’ve got some work to do. I still have hope and there’s potential in this car. My question to the guys is like, ‘There are certain issues that we have. These are my problems, help me fix them – what can we do to improve our ride and the bouncing that we have and the understeer?’ So if we can fix those going into FP3, then I think we could be in a slightly better position. The first and second sector I was right there – pace-wise it wasn’t so bad, it’s just when I got to the third sector, it was seven tenths, so if I can fix that tomorrow I think we can do better.”
As noted above, the F1 midfield teams had a gala time on Friday, with Haas’ Oliver Bearman leading the charge. After issues in FP1, the Brit was flying in FP2, ending up fourth in the order. He even exclaimed the same on radio, as he expanded more after the session.
Teammate Esteban Ocon wasn’t in the same mood, especially on the one-lap run. But both the Sauber F1 cars enjoyed their run in the final weekend under the ‘Sauber’ guise. Nico Hulkenberg was fifth in both the sessions, as teammate Gabriel Bortoleto backed the pace finishing sixth in FP2.
Their pace was so much that Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Visa Cash App RB’s Isack Hadjar were wary of them, even though they both finished inside the Top 10. Both felt good in the car, but reckon they need a bit more pace. The Spaniard highlighted high degradation on their side.
It was backed by Williams’ Alexander Albon, who felt the same. Hadjar’s teammate Liam Lawson felt the pinch of missing FP1 as he didn’t find the right setup in FP2. Aston Martin F1 pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll had a lot to get through in FP2 in the lone session they had, while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto will need a lot more to get to the Top 10.
Bearman: “We had a good car underneath us already in FP1 – I had a great feeling. The first run was a bit understeery but you could feel deep down that the car was wanting to go fast. In FP1, I didn’t get to do a lot of the session. We had a small issue on the car but I did one lap on the medium and we were really competitive. That’s really carried over to this afternoon but I think the key thing is it’s very tight out there. We’re four tenths away but five tenths puts you outside the top 10, so it’s going to be really important to optimise everything for tomorrow. Yeah, it has been the case for us that generally we’re a bit stronger in the race than we are in Qualifying. I think if we bias ourselves a bit towards Qualifying, it’s not going to be an issue regardless.”
Hulkenberg: “It was a clean Friday for us, with no interruptions or problems on our side. It felt positive out there, and it’s nice to carry that good feeling into the weekend. Now, it’s about fine-tuning and dialling out the last little bits as we look to keep this momentum over the next 48 hours.”
Sainz: “It was an extremely tight session today. I think we’re in the fight, but it looks like Haas and Sauber are leading the midfield at the moment. We were quite surprised with the high degradation during the long runs, so it’s something for us to look at. For tomorrow, we’ll try to take a step forward and fight our way into Q3. It will come down to whoever can put the lap together, so maximum focus.”
Hadjar: “Overall, it was a good day here in Abu Dhabi. Honestly, I thought it would have been a bit better, as both Saubers and Ollie look really fast and ahead of us. We know we need to find some pace, and we’ll work on that overnight. We expect a real fight tomorrow in Qualifying.”
Alonso: “With only one session today, we quickly had to learn how the car felt, and everything was as expected. The circuit is tricky to balance, but we will continue to work throughout the weekend and try to secure some points. It was also great to see Jak and Cian in the car this morning, learning while also gathering valuable data for the team.”
Gasly: “It was a difficult Free Practice 2 on our side today. We are going to need to find a lot more performance if we are to challenge for the top ten tomorrow when it counts. I think we have some evidence to explain where we are lacking and I am confident we can improve for tomorrow. There were a few things that did not work as expected. The balance was just too inconsistent and we seemed to lack grip across both cars in the second session. We will see what we can do and we will give it one final push this weekend as we close out the season.”
The FP1 session had nine F1 rookies filling up with the likes of McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, Red Bull’s Arvid Lindblad, Williams’ Luke Browning, Ferrari’s Arthur Leclerc, Visa Cash App RB’s Ayumu Iwasa, Haas’ Ryo Hirakawa, Alpine’s Paul Aron and Aston Martin’s Jak Crawford & Cian Shields.
O’Ward: “It was exciting to be back in the car and help the team put our best foot forward, going into what is probably the most important Sunday of the year for the team with Lando and Oscar competing for the Championship. We completed the run plan well, helping Oscar set up the car. Thanks to the team for the opportunity this afternoon, I’m excited to get back in the car on Tuesday for the test.”
Lindblad: “I’d like to start off saying a huge thank you to Oracle Red Bull Racing for the opportunity once again in the car. It’s always an amazing opportunity and a real pleasure to drive in Formula One, so I’m grateful for it. On the session itself, I’m not super happy with the way it went from my side. I felt that I could’ve done a better job and I’ll go away from today with a few things to work on ahead of next year. Driving in both F1 and F2 this weekend has been something new for me, so there was a bit of a balancing act that came with it. Nevertheless, I hope that I got some good data for the Team that they can use for the rest of the weekend.”
Leclerc: “I’m really happy with this FP1. It was a good session and we gathered important data for the team and the simulator group. Everything went well and the pace was strong. The Soft tyres were completely new to me, so I just tried to give it my best. Being on track together with my brother and the other Formula 1 drivers is always a great emotion. I want to thank the whole team for this opportunity.”
Browning: “Overall, a really positive FP1 session and great to get more mileage in an F1 car. It’s always an added challenge switching between F1 and F2 on the same day, but I’m enjoying being out there on track and learning how the current F1 car works. Now my focus is back on F2 as we close out this season, before getting my final opportunity to drive the FW47 this year at the post-season test!”
Hirakawa: “That was my fourth FP1 session of the season and I’ve learned so much, so thank you to both MoneyGram Haas F1 Team and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing for the opportunity this year. I think it was a pretty decent session, and finally I got to drive around a track I’ve already tested on in a Formula 1 car. I was able to push from lap 1 knowing the layout, able to give comprehensive feedback, and follow a positive trend in lap time. We were the team that put mediums on for our fastest lap, so I think we’re really competitive. I think we have a lot to analyze now, but we’re looking good.”
Aron: “I am very grateful to the team for the Free Practice 1 outings this year. Today was another successful session where we were able to complete the whole run plan and work through some good set-up items. Hopefully that can all be beneficial to the team for the remainder of the weekend. Even though this was my fifth FP1 of the year, the third with the team, it certainly still brings its challenges, especially as it has been over one month since I last drove. In general, I was happy with the pace but we did not quite put it together on the Soft run so there is definitely room to improve. Now I will be watching and supporting closely for the remainder of the weekend and hopefully we can have a successful one as a team.”
Crawford: “It was a really good, productive session. We tried some different things with the setup of the AMR25 and everything went smoothly. I drove here last year in the post-season test, so I had some good reference points and I felt I got up to speed quickly.”
Here’s how Friday practice session went in F1 Abu Dhabi GP