George Russell ended up in the lead of the third free practice of the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 GP, the last of the season. It was a non-representative session, during the daytime, while qualifying and the race will be held at night.
In the early stages, the reference time was set by Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), who was surpassed by Russell. The British driver from Mercedes was the first to run in 1m24s, but it was in a later stage of the session that he achieved the best time: 1m24.418s with soft tires.
Lando Norris (McLaren) once again performed well and narrowly missed out on first place, finishing just 95 milliseconds behind Russell. McLaren also saw Oscar Piastri finish third, 0.297s behind, followed by Alexander Albon (Williams) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) ahead of three-time champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull). The Dutchman struggled with rear-end problems, feeling the car sliding and jumping too much.
After leading at one point, Pérez only managed 11th place, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes). Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) finished 14th and Carlos Sainz had a discreet session. The Ferrari driver ended up in 20th and last place.
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