Lando Norris went quickest in opening follow for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the weekend he might declare his maiden Components 1 world championship.
The McLaren driver set a 1m24.485s on used gentle tyres, which meant he pipped second-placed Max Verstappen who can be his nearest challenger within the championship.
Norris will develop into champion ought to he declare a podium on Sunday, as he’s 12 factors above the Pink Bull driver and 16 forward of team-mate Oscar Piastri who was absent from first follow.
That’s as a result of F1 guidelines dictate that drivers should skip at the least two FP1s throughout the season and provides their seat to someone with not more than two grand prix begins.
IndyCar star Pato O’Ward subsequently took Piastri’s place and he was considered one of 9 rookies to contest opening follow at Yas Marina Circuit, which was sizzling and sunny for the ultimate weekend of the 2025 marketing campaign.
With it being the season finale all vehicles had been fast to enter the monitor throughout the opening 5 minutes and it was Verstappen who set the early tempo with a 1m27.130s on the arduous tyre.
Max Verstappen, Pink Bull Racing
Picture by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Photos by way of Getty Photos
This was 0.038s faster than George Russell on the identical rubber, although not all people began on the hards, with O’Ward utilizing gentle tyres and several other others, together with Norris, on mediums.
Such selection happened throughout a gap half-hour that was dictated by monitor evolution, as varied names greeted the highest of the leaderboard from Norris to Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto to Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar – who this week was introduced as Verstappen’s Pink Bull 2026 team-mate.
It was solely till the midway mark when drivers converged onto the softs that the same old frontrunners rose to the highest. Verstappen was first to take action, breaking the 1m25s barrier with a 1m24.493s on his opening gentle tyre run, 0.026s faster than Norris and 0.074s above third-placed Charles Leclerc.
The championship high two would then commerce positions as Norris pipped the four-time world champion by 0.008s with a lap time that will subsequently go unbeaten.
That’s as a result of a number of vehicles went again onto the opposite compounds, together with Verstappen with the hards, to finish their long-run programmes in a drama-less finish to FP1.
So the leaderboard largely remained because it was following the quick soft-tyre window, as Leclerc accomplished the highest three with a 1m24.501s, 0.016s behind Norris, however nonetheless complained of no grip and being “so sluggish”.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Picture by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Photos by way of Getty Photos
Mercedes teenager Andrea Kimi Antonelli was then 0.123s off the Monegasque in fourth with Nico Hulkenberg finishing the highest 5. Russell was sixth within the sister Mercedes, 0.248s off the tempo and one spot above Hulkenberg’s team-mate Bortoleto in a powerful displaying for Sauber, which is able to get pleasure from its remaining race earlier than changing into Audi.
The highest seven instances had been all set on the gentle tyre and it was Oliver Bearman in eighth who went quickest on the mediums, as he accomplished a 1m24.759s for Haas.
Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto then rounded up the highest 10, that means all 9 rookies completed within the backside half of the order.
Ryo Hirakawa was quickest of the 9 with a 1m24.934s in eleventh, forward of Paul Aron (thirteenth), O’Ward (14th), Arvid Lindblad (fifteenth), Arthur Leclerc (sixteenth), Ayumu Iwasa (seventeenth), Luke Browning (18th), Jak Crawford (nineteenth) and Cian Shields (twentieth).
F1 Abu Dhabi GP – FP1 outcomes
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