Abu Dhabi GP: McLaren’s Norris and Piastri dominate FP2

McLaren has enjoyed a strong start to its title bid in Abu Dhabi, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri dominating Friday’s second practice at Yas Marina.

Norris concluded the session two tenths ahead of his teammate and 0.462s ahead of impressive third-placed Haas charger Nico Hulkenberg.

Ferrari ended the day fourth and sixth with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc respectively, while Lewis Hamilton sat between the two Scuderia drivers in P5. Max Verstappen battled balance issues throughout the 60-minute workout to clock in a lowly P17.

• Abu Dhabi GP Free Practice 2 - Results

Formula 1’s standard field of contenders was back out on track after FP1’s rookie fest, although Alpine’s Jack Doohan remains this weekend’s Grand Prix debutant.

The young Aussie was among those in a rush to get out on track when the lights went green, with all the early runners predictably opting for the medium tyre.

Leclerc set the early pace, but the Ferrari charger was quickly overhauled by Norris, and then by Hamilton, the same top three from FP1 albeit in a different order.

Meanwhile, a frustrated Verstappen complained – and not for the first time – of “ridiculous understeer” impacting his RB20, the 2024 world champion sitting sixth in the pecking order at that point.

After everyone had settled in and Norris had set the early pace, soft rubber qualifying simulations were in order under the early evening floodlights.

Again, Norris was fastest, followed by Piastri, with Carlos Sainz over half a second behind on the trio’s first run. But a great lap by Nico Hulkenberg slotted the future Audi-Sauber driver into third.

Sergio Perez and Franco Colapinto were the two only drivers to remain in their garage during the flurry of hot laps. Unfortunately, the Williams rookie owed his immobilization to damage inflicted to his FW46’s floor, which signaled the end of his session.

Meanwhile, up front, there was no beating the McLaren driver’s simulated qualifying flyers.

With ten minutes left on the clock, teams reverted to mediums and race sims in a bid to refine their car’s set-up relative to pace and tyre degradation for Sunday’s event.

The session thus concluded with another dominant performance by McLaren which is looking strong in both qualifying and race trim.

Impressively, Hulkenberg concluded his evening third, ahead of Sainz, Hamilton and Leclerc who capped off the top six.

Valtteri Bottas in seventh position confirmed once again Sauber’s recent progress, while Kevin Magnussen confirmed Haas’ equally impressive form with P8, as Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda closed out the top ten.

Liam Lawson led the second half of the field from Pierre Gasly, with Russell concluding his day a relatively lowly 13th. There were no sparks flying in the night for Perez, and much less for Verstappen who settled in 17th position, clearly unhappy with his car’s balance.

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