Piastri leads McLaren FP3 1-2 as Ferrari is “nowhere”

Oscar Piastri headed another McLaren 1-2 in third practice for Formula 1’s season finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton third and Max Verstappen fourth.

There was little action at the start of the one-hour session, with the two Aston Martin cars heading out in the early minutes only for lengthy installation tours.

Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan emerged at the end of the opening 10 minutes and duly established the benchmark at 1m26.040s and 1m25.633s respectively – with the former notably dragging his Alpine’s plank heavily along the kerb exiting the long Turn 5 hairpin at the end of the second sector.

The Aston’s then re-emerged and Lance Stroll took the top spot with a 1m25.528s, with Fernando Alonso behind initially with an opening flying lap on the softs most of the teams were running early on that feature him having to jink to avoid a low-flying seagull.

As the opening third ended, Zhou Guanyu nipped ahead for Sauber, before Kevin Magnussen put Haas into first place with a 1m24.470s and Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton appeared on the mediums.

The frontrunners had joined the fray by this stage, but only Lando Norris troubled the leading times – his initial effort on the softs coming in over 0.3s down on Magnussen – with Mercedes biggest issue involving Hamilton wanting a motivational sticker removed from behind his steering wheel.

Magnussen’s time lasted until the start of the session’s final third, with Alex Albon gaining over 0.6s on the Dane to leap up to first from 12th with a 1m24.378s.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

After this, George Russell, who had been complaining about his pace much earlier in the session, moved ahead with a 1m24.075s, before Piastri edged clear by 0.642s for McLaren.

Norris could not better that 1m23.433s with his next flier, with the Briton sitting nearly 0.2s back om his team-mate, with Verstappen slotting into third a short while later with all the cars on the softs.

Piastri and Norris tried again on used softs as the final five minutes kicked off, but other than the Australian setting a personal best in the middle sector they did not improve, with his team-mate running off track at Turns 1 and 13 struggling with oversteer.

The leaders headed back to the pits after this, with Hamilton’s late effort enough to get ahead of Verstappen and trail Piastri by 0.390s – despite the Mercedes also being fitted with used softs.
Sainz ended up fifth ahead of Russell and the Haas pair – Nico Hulkenberg getting ahead of Magnussen with a new-soft performance run much later in FP3.

Charles Leclerc declared Ferrari “nowhere” in its battle with McLaren for the constructors’ championship, with the Monegasque driver – who will take a 10-place grid drop from wherever he qualifies later on Saturday at Yas Marina – ninth and 0.665s off the pace.

Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10 for Red Bull.