Lando Norris will go to bed tonight with a fairly satisfied feeling. The British World Championship leader also dominates in the second and penultimate training session. He is by far the fastest, giving Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, his only two title rivals, food for thought. However, the world champion is focusing on other matters.
The guest appearances of nine young drivers are a thing of the past in the second free practice, which for Oscar Piastri – one of the three remaining – is the first acquaintance with the asphalt and the conditions of the final race in Abu Dhabi. The Australian apparently doesn’t take it too seriously that he skipped an hour earlier in the afternoon: he is one of the last drivers to go out. “The absence of FP1 will not harm him,” believes Sky Sports’ analyst and former F1 driver Anthony Davidson.
The evening session begins with a notable incident involving Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. The world champion hinders his British title rival, who immediately complains about it via the on-board radio. “What is that guy (Verstappen) doing? I could have crashed…” The psychological warfare has apparently started, the race jury does not waste any more time on the minor offense.
Isack Hadjar, who will be Verstappen’s new teammate at Red Bull next year, has clocked the fastest time just ahead of Oliver Bearman on the softest tire. Norris and Verstappen have been on long-runs on the medium tire for the first half hour. The British leader in the standings is a tenth faster on this, while Piastri is slightly slower than Verstappen. When the world champion also starts a qualifying simulation, he climbs to the top of the leaderboard. However, not for long, as Norris significantly undercuts his time (0.363).
“We are focusing more on race speed,” explains Red Bull’s team boss Laurent Mekies on Sky Sports. “That’s why we only did one qualifying simulation on the softest tire. You can overtake here, this is one of the better tracks for that, so race speed and tire management are our priority.” Piastri struggles for an hour, not bringing his top form from last week in Qatar to the other desert. He is a full 0.7 seconds behind teammate Norris. The cause? Balance issues.
“Oscar is not quite comfortable yet, but that will come,” believes McLaren’s top man Zak Brown. “I am impressed by how relaxed our drivers have come to this finale, much more relaxed than usual. We had a great team barbecue on Thursday and the speeches that Oscar and Lando gave together were impressive.”
