Oscar Piastri set the quickest time within the closing free apply session of the 2024 season in Abu Dhabi, main a McLaren one-two forward of teammate Lando Norris. Lewis Hamilton rounded out the highest three, with the trio laying down the marker forward of Saturday’s essential qualifying session on the Yas Marina Circuit. In the meantime, Ferrari confronted a difficult session, struggling to match the tempo of their championship rivals.
The session started at a leisurely tempo, with most drivers remaining within the storage because the clock ticked away. The Aston Martins and Alpines have been the one groups to hit the monitor on the session’s begin, whereas others waited patiently, arms crossed, watching the screens. After about 15-20 minutes, on-track motion lastly ramped up. Kevin Magnussen briefly stole the highlight, clocking a powerful 1:24.470 on smooth tires to take the highest spot. Nevertheless, the Danish driver’s second within the solar was short-lived as sooner lap occasions began coming in.
Ferrari’s woes deepened in the course of the session when Carlos Sainz appeared to come across an engine concern. A small plume of white smoke was seen trailing from the exhaust of his automotive, sparking issues of a possible reliability downside. If this results in one other element change, Ferrari may face a grid penalty that may extinguish their faint hopes of securing a closing championship upset. Nevertheless, it stays unclear if the difficulty is critical or merely a false alarm.
Because the session entered its closing quarter-hour, drivers switched focus to simulated qualifying runs. Oscar Piastri set a powerful benchmark, beating teammate Lando Norris by practically two-tenths of a second to say the highest spot. Lewis Hamilton put in a robust lap late on smooth tires to safe third place, whereas Max Verstappen completed in fourth. McLaren’s commanding tempo hints that they might be in management this weekend as they purpose to seal the Constructors’ Championship title.
Saturday morning’s outcomes mark the second consecutive session the place McLaren locked out the highest two positions on the timesheets, showcasing their dominance at this crucial juncture of the season. This time, it was Piastri who led the cost, demonstrating his rising confidence and consistency because the season attracts to a detailed.
Lewis Hamilton’s efficiency in third underscored his potential to extract the utmost from his Mercedes, whereas Max Verstappen’s fourth-place effort left questions on Purple Bull’s outright tempo heading into qualifying.
Ferrari, in contrast, regarded off the mark. Based mostly on their FP3 exhibiting, they don’t seem to have the velocity to problem McLaren this weekend. Nevertheless, the distinctive situations of Yas Marina – with cooler temperatures in the course of the night periods – may but work of their favor throughout qualifying and the race.
For Charles Leclerc, the duty forward is much more daunting. He completed solely ninth within the session and faces a 10-place grid penalty that may depart him with a mountain to climb come race day. Whether or not Ferrari can flip their fortunes round underneath the floodlights stays to be seen.
Last Apply Three classification
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