FP3: Leading the final practice session is George Russell, followed closely by the two McLaren drivers!
Final Abu Dhabi Grand Prix practice: Russell leads Norris while Verstappen struggles.
In the third and final practice session of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon, Mercedes driver George Russell led the way, followed by Lando Norris of McLaren, while Max Verstappen was still having issues with balance on his Red Bull.
The field was able to catch up on mileage and fine-tune their cars at the Yas Marina Circuit during FP3, which took place after an interrupted first day of racing. However, it should be noted that the circumstances were not entirely reflective of the evening qualifying session and race.
Russell pushed his way down to a benchmark time of 1m 24.418s across multiple laps on soft tires, finishing just under a tenth ahead of Norris, who finished three tenths behind in third place with Oscar Piastri, his teammate.
Alex Albon’s Williams finished in fourth place as the Grove team works to take P7 in the constructors’ standings. Charles Leclerc, the lead Ferrari, finished in fifth place but said over the radio that he “didn’t understand” where the pace had gone after winning FP2.
The defending world champion Verstappen had yet another challenging practice session. His balancing issues from Friday persisted into the last practice hour, resulting in multiple stumbles and falls as well as numerous setup adjustments in an attempt to improve.
A final round of adjustments and one more run at least saw the Dutchman move up to sixth on the timing screen following an abandoned late run on soft tires, but he was still more than a minute off and obviously uncomfortable driving the RB19.
Verstappen, the reigning world champion, faced another difficult practice session. His Friday balancing problems continued into the final practice hour, leading to numerous slips and falls and a lot of setup tweaks in an effort to become better.
After a late run on soft tires that was abandoned, the Dutchman moved up to sixth on the timing screen with one more round of changes and a run, but he was still over a minute off and clearly uncomfortable behind the wheel of the RB19.
After a significant lock-up and off-track detour at Turn 1, Valtteri Bottas jeopardized his late run on softs, finishing 16th. Haas drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen wedged Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri in positions P17 to P19.
After red flag-causing shunts in FP2, both Hulkenberg and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz were back on track. Sainz’s low-key performance saw him finish at the back of the field, around 1.2 seconds slower than the lead.
Drivers and teams will now take a short break before gearing up for Saturday evening’s all-important qualifying hour, which is due to get under way at 1800 local time.
