McLaren make strong start to showdown with one-two in practice · RaceFans

Lando Norris gave McLaren a positive end to their Friday by setting the quickest time in the second practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

After Ferrari confirmed Charles Leclerc will take a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s constructors’ championship deciding race, McLaren’s start to the weekend got even more promising when Norris and team mate Oscar Piastri topped the time sheets in the second session of the day.

Nico Hulkenberg was a surprisingly third fastest for Ferrari, with Carlos Sainz Jnr fourth.

After handing over their cars for the opening session of the day, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz Jnr, Oscar Piastri, Lance Stroll, Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon all reclaimed their cars for second practice. Verstappen complained about gear syncing problems with his RB20 for his first runs but that appeared to be solved by Red Bull after a trip to the garage.

The kerbs around the Yas Marina circuit did not feature the same strips of gravel that the Losail circuit did the previous weekend, but some drivers were caught out by how aggressive they are. Leclerc alerted his team to potential plank damage when he ran wide exiting a corner, while Franco Colapinto’s session ended when he ran wide at the exit of turn nine, suffering floor damage.

Norris and Piastri posted the quickest times of the session on the soft tyres, with Norris two tenths faster than his team mate. Once the sun had set, the field turned focus to high fuel runs in the only practice session at the time of day that the race itself will be held in.

After the hour was complete, Norris and Piastri were confirmed as fastest ahead of Hulkenberg just under half a second behind Norris’s best time. Sainz was fourth with Lewis Hamilton, Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas behind. Kevin Magnussen, Alexander Albon and Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top ten. Red Bull drivers Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen were only 14th and 17th fastest, respectively.

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