F1 Abu Dhabi GP: Lando Norris pips Max Verstappen to go quickest in FP1

Lando Norris went quickest in opening follow for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the weekend that he might declare his maiden Method 1 world championship.

The McLaren driver set a 1m24.485s on used mushy tyres, which meant he pipped second-placed Max Verstappen who can be his nearest challenger within the championship.

Norris will turn 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 one in every of 9 drivers to sit down out first follow.

That’s as a result of F1 guidelines dictate that drivers should skip not less than two FP1s in the course of the season and provides their seat to a driver with not more than two grand prix begins.

IndyCar star Pato O’Ward subsequently took Piastri’s place and he was one in every of 9 rookies to contest opening follow at Yas Marina Circuit, which was scorching and sunny for the ultimate weekend of the 2025 marketing campaign.

Max Verstappen, Pink Bull Racing

Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Photographs by way of Getty Photographs

With it being the season finale, all vehicles have been fast to enter the monitor in the course of the opening 5 minutes, and it was Verstappen who set the early tempo with a 1m27.130s on the exhausting tyre.

This was 0.038s faster than runner-up George Russell on the identical rubber, although not all people began on the hards with O’Ward utilizing mushy tyres and a number of other others – together with Norris – choosing the mediums.

Such selection happened throughout a gap half-hour that was dictated by monitor evolution, as numerous names greeted the highest of the leaderboard from Norris to Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and 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 mushy tyre run, 0.026s faster than Norris and 0.074s above third-placed Charles Leclerc.

The championship prime two would then commerce positions as Norris pipped the four-time world champion by 0.008s with a lap time that might 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 dramaless finish to FP1.

Arthur Leclerc was one of nine rookies in action in FP1

Arthur Leclerc was one in every of 9 rookies in motion in FP1

Photograph by: Zak Mauger / LAT Photographs by way of Getty Photographs

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”.

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 robust exhibiting for Sauber, which is able to take pleasure in its closing race earlier than turning into Audi.

The highest seven occasions have been all set on the mushy 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.

Endurance world champion Ryo Hirakawa was quickest of the 9 with a 1m24,934s, 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).

Learn Additionally:

F1 Abu Dhabi GP – FP1 outcomes

Images from Abu Dhabi GP – Follow

Lando Norris, McLaren