Hamilton leads Verstappen in final practice in Abu Dhabi

Lewis Hamilton clocked in fastest in FP3, with 0.214s to spare over fellow title contender Max Verstappen.

The Mercedes driver's strong pace on the soft tyre went unchallenged in the session, with Verstappen just managing to slot in second in the final ten minutes of the session.

Behind the leading duo, the two stars' wingmen, Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez concluded the session P3 and P4 while McLaren's lando Norris rounded off the top five as 'best of the rest'.

• 2021 Abu Dhabi GP Free Practice 3 - Results

Saturday's final dress rehearsal was of little relevance to teams as qualifying later today and Sunday's race will take place under the twilight and in cooler conditions.

It was nevertheless an opportunity for everyone to fine-tune or validate certain settings.

Warm temperatures were in order once again in Abu Dhabi, with 39 degrees C on the track and 27 degrees C in the air.

Haas' Mick Schumacher was the first driver to spring into action, followed by Alpine's in-form Esteban Ocon who set the second fastest time on Friday.

The Frenchman put the first significant time on the board but was quickly outdone by Verstappen, with the Red Bull driver laying down a flyer on the medium tyre.

However, fifteen minutes in, a soft-shod Hamilton sprung to the top with a 1m24.055s that cleared his challenger by 0.773s. But Bottas then lowered the benchmark further while Perez slotted in third, ahead of Verstappen.

Hamilton - still trusting the soft tyre - pressed on however and blitzed his teammate's best by a whopping 0.751s!

Meanwhile, AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly enjoyed another strong start to their day, with the pair clocking in P5 and P6 on the hard tyre.

In the Red Bull camp, crews were spotted changing the rear wing on Verstappen's RB16B with an identical specification element, a change done on the grounds of reliability according to team boss Christian Horner.

With fifteen minutes left on the clock, Tsunoda fired off another impressive flyer that propelled the Japanese driver among the top there, just behind the leading Mercedes duo while Ferrari's Carlos Sainz slotted in among the top five.

While vociferously complaining of understeer, Verstappen still managed to get within the vicinity of Hamilton's best, with a 1m23.488 that positioned himself second in the closing stages of the session.

Meanwhile, a late charge from McLaren's Lando Norris pushed the Briton up to fourth, but his effort was surpassed in the dying moments of FP3 by Perez who ensured a prefect Mercedes/Red Bull alternating top four.

As the chequered flag was deployed, Norris thus led the 'best of the rest' contenders from Tsunoda, Gasly, Sainz, Ricciardo and Leclerc.

Hamilton's pace bodes well for qualifying this evening, but one can't discount the intrepid Max Verstappen, while questions also remain about which tyre compound the two title protagonists will choose for the start of Sunday's race.

Join us in two hours for the thrilling final shootout of 2021.

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