Championship chief Lando Norris topped title challenger Max Verstappen for the highest spot of the opening follow session on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Norris set the benchmark at 1m 24.485s along with his third flying lap on a set of sentimental tires after his first try to set a time was spoiled by a spin at Flip 2. It was sufficient to beat Verstappen’s first try, however not by a lot, with the championship contenders separated by simply 0.008s.
Charles Leclerc accomplished the highest three for Ferrari at simply 0.016s additional again, whereas Kimi Antonelli ensured all 4 front-running groups have been represented inside the highest 4 by lapping 0.123s off the tempo.
The session was remarkably tight, although FP1 is certainly one of solely two periods run within the daylight, that means circumstances have been unrepresentative of night-time qualifying and the twilight grand prix. It nonetheless raised expectations that the championship decider could possibly be a carefully contested contest.
It wasn’t all easy crusing for the leaders, nonetheless, with Verstappen complaining late within the hour that “one thing is likely to be damaged on the automotive,” although when requested to specify the place the problem was, he replied vaguely that the issue was “in every single place.”
Norris additionally curiously began the session sporting flow-vis paint on his rear wing regardless of it being a beforehand used half. His saved snap on softs additionally wasn’t his solely tour, the Briton crusing huge on the first flip late on his closing laps whereas working on excessive gas.
Regardless of his aggressive flying lap, Leclerc lamented a scarcity of race tempo, a minimum of within the heat circumstances.
“The automotive simply feels prefer it has zero grip,” he radioed. “It’s unbelievable, I actually don’t get it.”
Nico Hulkenberg was a aggressive fifth for Sauber, his lap placing him simply 0.144s slower than Norris and splitting Antonelli forward from George Russell within the second Mercedes behind, the Englishman 0.1s additional again.
Gabriel Bortoleto was seventh within the second Sauber forward of Oliver Bearman, whose Haas was chronically problem-plagued by the hour. At first the group suspected a hydraulic drawback, although the Englishman returned to the monitor shortly afterwards to set the eighth-fastest time simply 0.274s slower than Norris. He was then informed to retire the automotive, with the group later explaining it suspected a sensor drawback was behind its woes.
Carlos Sainz was ninth for Williams forward of Franco Colapinto, finishing the highest 10.
Ryo Hirakawa, the Toyota sports activities automotive star, was eleventh in Esteban Ocon’s Haas, the veteran the quickest of an 11-strong discipline of junior drivers in motion in FP1.
Isack Hadjar adopted for Racing Bulls, beating Alpine reserve driver Paul Aron in Pierre Gasly’s automotive.
McLaren IndyCar star Pato O’Ward steered title contender Oscar Piastri’s automotive to 14th.
Arvid Lindblad, introduced as a 2026 Racing Bulls driver in the course of the week and presently sixth within the F2 championship, took Yuki Tsunoda’s Racing Bulls automotive to fifteenth forward of Ferrari improvement driver Arthur Leclerc, who was in Lewis Hamilton’s SF25.
Ayumu Iwasa, the 2025 Tremendous System champion, took Liam Lawson’s automotive to seventeenth forward of Williams reserve driver Luke Browning, fourth within the F2 championship, in Alex Albon’s automotive.
Browning was the primary driver greater than 1s off Norris’s time in a good collection of performances by the sphere of rookies.
Aston Martin twin rookies Jak Crawford – the American having positioned second within the F2 championship this 12 months – and Cian Shields accomplished the order.
