Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Yas Marina, 2019

Verstappen leads Mercedes pair in close final practice

2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix third practice

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Max Verstappen and the two Mercedes drivers were covered by less than a tenth of a second at the top of the times at the end of final practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

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The Red Bull driver displaced the silver cars from the top of the times with his second lap at the end of final practice. Verstappen, who’d gone wide at turn one on the first lap of his final run, lapped just seven-hundredths of a second faster than Lewis Hamilton.

There was almost nothing to choose between the two Mercedes drivers, though they are likely to start the race from opposite ends of the grid. Valtteri Bottas had his second engine change of the weekend overnight, earning another ‘start-at-the-back’ penalty.

Alexander Albon got within four-tenths of a second of his team mate, relegating the Ferrari pair to fifth and sixth. However, neither of the red cars made a serious effort on soft tyres at the end of the session.

Sergio Perez took seventh place despite being concerned after spotting oil leaking from the back of his Racing Point. The team told him it was not a cause for concern. He headed a string of five different cars: his Racing Point, Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault, Carlos Sainz Jnr’s McLaren, Pierre Gasly’s Toro Rosso and Romain Grosjean’s Haas were covered by a quarter of a second.

The Williams drivers occupied the bottom two places as usual, though they were closer to the rest, George Russell lapping six-tenths of a second off Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo.

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Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
133Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’36.56615
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’36.6400.07417
377Valtteri BottasMercedes1’36.6550.08917
423Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’36.9270.36118
55Sebastian VettelFerrari1’36.9750.40915
616Charles LeclercFerrari1’37.0100.44416
711Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’37.5160.95016
83Daniel RicciardoRenault1’37.6151.04914
955Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’37.6911.12522
1010Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’37.7361.17017
118Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’37.7681.20212
1226Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Honda1’37.9631.39718
134Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’38.1001.53418
1420Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’38.1981.63212
1518Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’38.4621.89616
167Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’38.5141.94821
1727Nico HulkenbergRenault1’38.5802.01413
1899Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’38.7822.21618
1963George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’39.2062.64015
2088Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes1’39.8593.29317

Third practice visual gaps

Max Verstappen – 1’36.566

+0.074 Lewis Hamilton – 1’36.640

+0.089 Valtteri Bottas – 1’36.655

+0.361 Alexander Albon – 1’36.927

+0.409 Sebastian Vettel – 1’36.975

+0.444 Charles Leclerc – 1’37.010

+0.950 Sergio Perez – 1’37.516

+1.049 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’37.615

+1.125 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’37.691

+1.170 Pierre Gasly – 1’37.736

+1.202 Romain Grosjean – 1’37.768

+1.397 Daniil Kvyat – 1’37.963

+1.534 Lando Norris – 1’38.100

+1.632 Kevin Magnussen – 1’38.198

+1.896 Lance Stroll – 1’38.462

+1.948 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’38.514

+2.014 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’38.580

+2.216 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’38.782

+2.640 George Russell – 1’39.206

+3.293 Robert Kubica – 1’39.859

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Valtteri BottasMercedes1’36.9571’36.2561’36.655+0.39969
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’37.5911’36.5661’36.640+0.07469
3Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’37.4921’36.8071’36.566-0.24167
4Charles LeclercFerrari1’39.2491’36.6421’37.010+0.36864
5Sebastian VettelFerrari1’38.9061’36.6911’36.975+0.28462
6Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’38.0841’37.2881’36.927-0.36171
7Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’39.9011’37.6371’37.516-0.12164
8Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’39.1461’37.6011’37.768+0.16747
9Daniel RicciardoRenault1’40.8501’38.4001’37.615-0.78551
10Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Honda1’39.9691’37.6511’37.963+0.31272
11Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’40.6871’37.8341’37.691-0.14377
12Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’40.4011’37.7701’37.736-0.03470
13Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’39.6281’37.9181’38.100+0.18268
14Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’39.8641’37.9851’38.462+0.47771
15Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’39.3501’38.0801’38.198+0.11862
16Nico HulkenbergRenault1’39.5051’38.1221’38.580+0.45864
17Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’39.8881’38.4151’38.514+0.09968
18Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’39.4231’38.4641’38.782+0.31870
19George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’41.3621’39.5121’39.206-0.30670
20Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes1’40.7921’40.4551’39.859-0.59669

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2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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7 comments on “Verstappen leads Mercedes pair in close final practice”

  1. BOSS
    30th November 2019, 11:23

    Go Lewis go

  2. Profile Photo

    MacLeod (@macleod)
    30th November 2019, 11:27

    Interesting Mecedes and Ferrari are faster in FP2 then Red Bull who went for the classic FP3. I think Lewis is going to be Pole.

    1. Monsieur Punet
      30th November 2019, 11:37

      That would be Robert.

  3. Only Facts!
    30th November 2019, 11:33

    I found some interesting things about the FP3 lap times:
    ALL Ferrari powered cars’ times were worst than FP2. Despite temperature, track conditions, etc, the other teams improved. What is that? Strategy, PU settings, some concerns about temperature? I mean all six cars from 3 different teams were slower.
    Bottas times were also slower, but Hamilton’s pretty stayed the same. Bottas had another engine change and lost about 0.3sec. Was the leak the real reason behind that or is Mercedes taking the opportunity to try some PU parts for 2020?

    1. Profile Photo

      ColdFly (@)
      30th November 2019, 11:57

      Well Only Facts!, as 12 cars were slower in P3 than P2 chances are that it includes all six Ferrari powered cars.
      Only Stats! could calculate it for you ;)

      1. Only Facts!
        30th November 2019, 12:59

        @ColdFly good thing that you went back to check all times. It shows that you are interested in those types of details. I respect that since a few now what they are talking about.

        But your math was too simple and you missed that among the other non-Ferrari-PU teams the gains are mixed. Ricciardo did, Hulk not. Perez did, Stroll not, Gasly did, Kivyat not. Plus the two Williams.

        And thank you for the compliment on my screen name :)

        1. Profile Photo

          ColdFly (@)
          30th November 2019, 15:43

          Too much credit for a 10s calculation.
          hint: (12!/6!)/(20!/14!)

Comments are closed.