Perez heads Red Bull one-two over Mercedes in final Abu Dhabi practice

Sergio Perez headed a Red Bull one-two ahead of Mercedes in final practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina circuit.

Perez’s best time of a 1’24.982 saw him head into qualifying a tenth-and-a-half quicker than Max Verstappen, with Lewis Hamilton almost a quarter of a second behind in third. However the Mercedes driver is under investigation for failing to reduce his speed sufficiently when the red flag was shown.

It was a typically bright, warm start to Saturday in Abu Dhabi as the final practice hour of the 2022 season began. With the track hotter than it likely would be for any further session in the weekend, very few drivers chose to head out in the early part of the session.

The two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Charles Leclerc enjoyed the track to themselves in the early minutes, with Sainz setting the initial benchmark of a 1’27.821 on medium tyres before Leclerc beat his team mate by half a second on his first flying lap.

Mercedes then took to the track on the soft tyres, with Lewis Hamilton going easily fastest with a 1’26.040, while team mate George Russell moved into second with lap just under half a second slower than his team mate.

Leclerc improved on his original set of mediums to go second quickest, half-a-tenth slower than Hamilton, while the two Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon used mediums to go third and fourth fastest-respectively.

Lando Norris alerted his team to a possible brake fire on his front-left wheel and was told to pit and abandon his run. He was soon sent back out again, McLaren seemingly satisfied his car was safe. Soon after, Sebastian Vettel reported a similar problem on his Aston Martin, with smoke visibly rising from his own left-front wheel.

Perez set a new fastest time of the session with a 1’25.861 on the medium tyres, before practice was red-flagged at the half-hour mark when Pierre Gasly suffered a failure at the front-left of his car at the exit of turn nine, leaving a small piece of debris just off the racing line. While the debris was cleared, Hamilton appeared to overtake both Norris and Kevin Magnussen under the red flag on the approach to turn five. Hamilton will be investigated after practice for failing to slow under red flag.

The session resumed shortly afterwards, with many teams opting to head out on soft tyres to work on their single lap pace ahead of qualifying. Hamilton moved back to the top of the times with his first effort, before Perez went almost a quarter of a second quicker than the Mercedes to retake the top spot. Verstappen moved into second place by improving his personal best time, but lost time after running wide at the exit of the turn five hairpin.

Despite a late rush out onto the circuit for the final minutes, only the Ferrari of Leclerc improved at the chequered flag, moving to sixth position. Perez therefore ended the session as the fastest driver, ahead of team mate Verstappen and the two Mercedes of Hamilton and Russell. Norris was fifth in the McLaren, ahead of the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz. Daniel Ricciardo was eighth in the second McLaren, with Sebastian Vettel completing his final practice session of his career in ninth position. Alexander Albon completed the top 10.

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2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix third practice result

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	RB18	1’24.982		15
2	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	RB18	1’25.134	0.152	15
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W13	1’25.222	0.240	20
4	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W13	1’25.395	0.413	15
5	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL36	1’25.518	0.536	16
6	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	F1-75	1’25.571	0.589	24
7	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	F1-75	1’25.605	0.623	23
8	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL36	1’25.950	0.968	18
9	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR22	1’26.012	1.030	13
10	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW44	1’26.051	1.069	16
11	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A522	1’26.073	1.091	17
12	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	A522	1’26.076	1.094	18
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT03	1’26.170	1.188	19
14	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C42	1’26.189	1.207	17
15	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT03	1’26.239	1.257	12
16	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR22	1’26.298	1.316	20
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-22	1’26.356	1.374	21
18	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	VF-22	1’26.473	1.491	19
19	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C42	1’26.482	1.500	17
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	FW44	1’26.646	1.664	14

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Full practice times

Position	Number	Driver	Team	FP1 time	FP2 time	FP3 time	Gap	Laps
1	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	1’26.967	1’25.852	1’24.982		5
2	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull		1’25.146	1’25.134	0.152	1
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’26.633	1’25.761	1’25.222	0.240	4
4	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1’26.853	1’25.487	1’25.395	0.413	2
5	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes		1’26.377	1’25.518	0.536	11
6	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’26.888	1’25.599	1’25.571	0.589	3
7	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari		1’25.932	1’25.605	0.623	6
8	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	1’27.619	1’26.124	1’25.950	0.968	9
9	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’27.268	1’26.395	1’26.012	1.030	12
10	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1’27.891	1’26.038	1’26.073	1.056	7
11	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault		1’26.043	1’26.076	1.061	8
12	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1’27.840	1’26.750	1’26.051	1.069	16
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	1’27.991	1’26.680	1’26.170	1.188	15
14	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’27.655	1’26.300	1’26.189	1.207	10
15	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	1’27.845	1’27.036	1’26.239	1.257	19
16	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes		1’26.547	1’26.298	1.316	14
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’28.142	1’26.915	1’26.356	1.374	18
18	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari		1’26.839	1’26.473	1.491	17
19	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari		1’26.479	1’26.482	1.497	13
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes		1’27.262	1’26.646	1.664	21
21	36	Liam Lawson	Red Bull	1’27.201			2.219	20
22	39	Robert Shwartzman	Ferrari	1’27.429			2.447	22
23	88	Robert Kubica	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’28.064			3.082	23
24	45	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	1’28.098			3.116	24
25	51	Pietro Fittipaldi	Haas-Ferrari	1’28.204			3.222	25
26	28	Pato O’Ward	McLaren-Mercedes	1’28.350			3.368	26
27	82	Jack Doohan	Alpine-Renault	1’28.484			3.502	27
28	34	Felipe Drugovich	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’28.672			3.690	28

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