Leclerc tops FP1 but picks up grid penalty

Charles Leclerc was fastest in Formula 1’s final FP1 session of 2024 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, two tenths clear of McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Leclerc was stranded in the garage for the opening 25 minutes of the session with a battery issue, but immediately picked up the pace when he got out for the session.

But Leclerc is set for a 10-place grid penalty at the Abu Dhabi finale after Ferrari was forced to fit a new battery.

After getting a few laps on the board, he took aim at Lando Norris’ benchmark of a 1m24.542s, and set a 1m24.321s on the soft tyres to vault to the top of the leaderboard.

The opening session of the Yas Marina round featured multiple reserve and young drivers as the teams fulfilled the requirements for running inexperienced drivers before the season was out – including Leclerc’s brother Arthur, who took over Carlos Sainz’s seat for the FP1 session.

Lewis Hamilton was third quickest, having been on top of the order at the conclusion of the medium-tyre runs during the opening half-hour of the session, ahead of team-mate George Russell.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Pierre Gasly continued his impressive form and claimed the fifth-fastest time, 0.04s clear of Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas. The two Haas drivers, who leave the team at the end of the season, were split by Franco Colapinto in seventh.

Felipe Drugovich was the highest-placed rookie in the session, setting a time on softs just moments behind team-mate Fernando Alonso to go 0.033s faster than his illustrious Aston Martin stablemate. Sergio Perez was between them in 10th.

Liam Lawson and Valtteri Bottas were ahead of McLaren’s Ryo Hirakawa, who spent most of the session conducting aero work before getting a chance on soft tyres later into the run-time. The Toyota World Endurance Championship driver will also drive for Haas in the post-weekend Yas Marina test.

F2 title contender Isack Hadjar, driving Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, was 15th fastest. The Frenchman was a consistent presence on the radio having become frustrated by Luke Browning being ahead of him on two occasions.

Hadjar was just half a tenth up on Zhou Guanyu, who struggled throughout the session with understeer in the slower corners.

Ayumu Iwasa (RB) and Arthur Leclerc (Ferrari) were two tenths down on Zhou, while Alpine’s new driver Jack Doohan and Williams’ Browning completed the order.