Charles Leclerc went first-fastest in FP1 in Abu Dhabi ahead of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton. He had issues at the start but quickly found the rhythm.
The last FP1 session of the season saw new names like Isak Hadjar (Red Bull), Ryo Hirakawa (McLaren), Felipe Drugovich (Aston Martin), Arthur Leclerc (Ferrari), Ayumu Iwasa (RB F1 Team), and Luke Browning (Williams).
Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc couldn’t go out on track due to issues with his Ferrari. Hadjar, who was setting lap times but struggling with balance, was another one having problems.
Mercedes started on the right foot, as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell led the session ahead of Lando Norris. Moreover, it surely wasn’t the session Leclerc was hoping for, as he kept having issues.
However, the track conditions change a lot from FP1 to FP2, where the conditions are more similar to qualifying and the race.
With half an hour to go, many drivers started fitting the soft tires to simulate a qualifying run. The first one was Russell, who found traffic in the last sector and didn’t improve much. Norris also improved and went first-fastest by more than 0.8s.
Leclerc finally managed to put some laps under his belt. Meanwhile, Hamilton also improved and went up to P2, with his teammate also setting a better lap than the one before but staying P3. The two Haas drivers also did a good job, as Nico Hülkenberg was fourth, with Kevin Magnussen sixth. The Williams of Franco Colapinto was sandwiched between the two.
Sergio Perez was only seventh, with Liam Lawson and Valtteri Bottas behind. Charles Leclerc was tenth-fastest after having fixed the issues with the battery. Pierre Gasly then improved his lap and went up to P4, showing the steady good progress made by Alpine.
Charles Leclerc then fitted the soft tires to simulate a flying lap while other drivers were focused on the race pace simulations. The Monégasque went first-fastest, 0.231s ahead of Norris.
However, the Ferrari driver might receive a penalty due to the substitution of the battery on his car, which was the cause of the problems at the start of the session. There was no official news on that yet, though.