Max Verstappen headed the final practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the second time this weekend he has topped a session.
Following almost a quarter of an hour with no cars running on track, the Red Bull driver set a best time of 1’36.251, the quickest of the weekend so far by two hundredths of a second.However with the final, hour-long session run in blazing sunshine, and track temperatures above 35C for much of the time, the track conditions will change significantly before qualifying begins in just under two hours’. Mercedes are therefore unlikely to be concerned that their fastest car was only sixth, or that neither of their drivers improved their times compared to yesterday.
Alexander Albon, who complained of serious understeer on his car, completed a one-two for Red Bull but was half a second slower than his team mate. The two Renaults were next, Daniel Ricciardo leading Esteban Ocon, the pair separated by just two-hundredths of a second.
Lando Norris slipped into fifth place, dropping Lewis Hamilton out of the top five on the Mercedes driver’s second day since his return to the cockpit. Carlos Sainz Jnr also got among the Mercedes-powered cars in the second half of the top 10, which included Hamilton’s team mate Valtteri Bottas and both Racing Points.
Ahead of qualifying, George Russell indicated Williams have the potential to reach Q2 again, setting the 15th-quickest time, fractionally ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi in the quickest Alfa Romeo. Russell had almost nine tenths of a second in hand over team mate Nicholas Latifi.
Pietro Fittipaldi, who propped up the times table, had a similar gap to team mate Kevin Magnussen.
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2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix third practice result
Third practice visual gaps
Max Verstappen – 1’36.251
+0.501 Alexander Albon – 1’36.752
+0.626 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’36.877
+0.648 Esteban Ocon – 1’36.899
+0.743 Lando Norris – 1’36.994
+0.761 Lewis Hamilton – 1’37.012
+0.779 Lance Stroll – 1’37.030
+0.817 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’37.068
+0.834 Valtteri Bottas – 1’37.085
+0.976 Sergio Perez – 1’37.227
+1.015 Daniil Kvyat – 1’37.266
+1.019 Charles Leclerc – 1’37.270
+1.120 Pierre Gasly – 1’37.371
+1.477 Sebastian Vettel – 1’37.728
+1.635 George Russell – 1’37.886
+1.649 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’37.900
+2.018 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’38.269
+2.206 Kevin Magnussen – 1’38.457
+2.514 Nicholas Latifi – 1’38.765
+2.908 Pietro Fittipaldi – 1’39.159
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
| Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’37.378 | 1’37.046 | 1’36.251 | -0.795 | 72 |
| 2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’37.412 | 1’36.276 | 1’37.085 | +0.809 | 76 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’38.744 | 1’36.479 | 1’37.012 | +0.533 | 70 |
| 4 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull-Honda | 1’38.547 | 1’37.263 | 1’36.752 | -0.511 | 73 |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1’37.508 | 1’36.877 | -0.631 | 44 | |
| 6 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1’38.515 | 1’37.505 | 1’36.899 | -0.606 | 79 |
| 7 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | 1’39.352 | 1’37.438 | 1’36.994 | -0.444 | 70 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’38.831 | 1’37.560 | 1’37.030 | -0.53 | 70 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren-Renault | 1’39.330 | 1’37.616 | 1’37.068 | -0.548 | 70 |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’38.956 | 1’37.506 | 1’37.227 | -0.279 | 73 |
| 11 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’39.150 | 1’37.596 | 1’37.266 | -0.33 | 76 |
| 12 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’39.344 | 1’37.508 | 1’37.270 | -0.238 | 70 |
| 13 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’39.160 | 1’37.900 | 1’37.371 | -0.529 | 80 |
| 14 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’39.670 | 1’38.198 | 1’37.728 | -0.47 | 67 |
| 15 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’40.446 | 1’38.817 | 1’37.886 | -0.931 | 64 |
| 16 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’38.564 | 1’37.900 | -0.664 | 47 | |
| 17 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’39.199 | 1’38.068 | 1’38.269 | +0.201 | 66 |
| 18 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’38.504 | 1’38.457 | -0.047 | 49 | |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’41.063 | 1’39.132 | 1’38.765 | -0.367 | 75 |
| 20 | Pietro Fittipaldi | Haas-Ferrari | 1’44.069 | 1’39.027 | 1’39.159 | +0.132 | 64 |
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2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
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sd
12th December 2020, 11:22
Sandbagging..
@HoHum (@hohum)
12th December 2020, 11:47
saving their engines.
aezy_doc
12th December 2020, 12:43
Why would they bother at this point in the season? More like no point running at full throttle in completely unrepresentative conditions.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
12th December 2020, 11:51
Also, P3 is not representative of Qualifying conditions. P2 is more accurate, and they did alright then!
theRealMax (@millionus)
12th December 2020, 12:05
And big ones too….
Frank
12th December 2020, 11:37
Hopefully this is Albon’s last weekend in a formula one car.
JohnH
12th December 2020, 11:52
The race is on Sunday lets not draw any conclusions till then.
bosyber (@bosyber)
12th December 2020, 12:32
Have to for my prediction but otherwise, yes indeed,no indication Mercedes were unsettled.