Lando Norris went quickest in opening practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the weekend he could claim his maiden Formula 1 world championship.
The McLaren driver set a 1m24.485s on used soft tyres, which meant he pipped second-placed Max Verstappen who is also his nearest challenger in the championship.
Norris will become champion should he claim a podium on Sunday, as he is 12 points above the Red Bull driver and 16 ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri who was absent from first practice.
That’s because F1 rules dictate that drivers must skip at least two FP1s during the season and give their seat to somebody with no more than two grand prix starts.
IndyCar star Pato O’Ward therefore took Piastri’s place and he was one of nine rookies to contest opening practice at Yas Marina Circuit, which was hot and sunny for the final weekend of the 2025 campaign.
With it being the season finale all cars were quick to enter the track during the opening five minutes and it was Verstappen who set the early pace with a 1m27.130s on the hard tyre.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
This was 0.038s quicker than George Russell on the same rubber, though not everybody started on the hards, with O’Ward using soft tyres and several others, including Norris, on mediums.
Such variety took place during an opening 30 minutes that was dictated by track evolution, as various names greeted the top of the leaderboard from Norris to Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto to Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar – who this week was announced as Verstappen’s Red Bull 2026 team-mate.
It was only until the halfway mark when drivers converged onto the softs that the usual frontrunners rose to the top. Verstappen was first to do so, breaking the 1m25s barrier with a 1m24.493s on his opening soft tyre run, 0.026s quicker than Norris and 0.074s above third-placed Charles Leclerc.
The championship top two would then trade positions as Norris pipped the four-time world champion by 0.008s with a lap time that would subsequently go unbeaten.
That’s because several cars went back onto the other compounds, including Verstappen with the hards, to complete their long-run programmes in a drama-less end to FP1.
So the leaderboard largely remained as it was following the short soft-tyre window, as Leclerc completed the top three with a 1m24.501s, 0.016s behind Norris, but still complained of no grip and being “so slow”.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
Mercedes teenager Andrea Kimi Antonelli was then 0.123s off the Monegasque in fourth with Nico Hulkenberg completing the top five. Russell was sixth in the sister Mercedes, 0.248s off the pace and one spot above Hulkenberg’s team-mate Bortoleto in a strong showing for Sauber, which will enjoy its final race before becoming Audi.
The top seven times were all set on the soft tyre and it was Oliver Bearman in eighth who went quickest on the mediums, as he completed a 1m24.759s for Haas.
Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto then rounded up the top 10, meaning all nine rookies finished in the bottom half of the order.
Ryo Hirakawa was quickest of the nine with a 1m24.934s in 11th, ahead of Paul Aron (13th), O’Ward (14th), Arvid Lindblad (15th), Arthur Leclerc (16th), Ayumu Iwasa (17th), Luke Browning (18th), Jak Crawford (19th) and Cian Shields (20th).
F1 Abu Dhabi GP – FP1 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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