FP3: Piastri leads another dominant one-two for McLaren
Having dominated the second practice on Friday, McLaren continued to impress in the final practice, but it was Oscar Piastri this time out to lead a one-two for the Woking-based outfit. F1Technical's lead journalist Balazs Szabo reports on Free Practice 3 at the Yas Marina Circuit.
The third and final practice saw the majority of drivers head out on Pirelli's soft tyres, but several racers elected to use harder rubber, including four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen and four-time F1 racer winner Carlos Sainz, who both opted for the yellow-walled mediums for their first run.
The closing stages of the one-hour practice saw the entire field head back out on a fresh set of red-walled Pirelli tyres, with Oscar Piastri coming out on top of the leaderboard with a time of 1m23.433s which was significantly slower than what his team-mate Lando Norris managed in cooler conditions in FP2.
The Briton ended up second, just under two tenths shy of the Australian. Having already impressed yesterday, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton took third, leading a very closely-matched group, with Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, George Russell, Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen and Charles Leclerc following suit.
Interestingly, the Haas duo looked quick all through the session, with Magnussen having led the early stages of the session on a weekend when the American team could turn the situation over in the Constructors' Championship to beat Alpine for sixth in the standings.
Sergio Perez looked impressive yesterday in heavy fuel configuration, but struggled for pace over a single lap. The Mexican appeared to be slightly more comfortable on low fuel, ending the one-hour session in P10.
Ahead of his crucial test with Red Bull on Tuesday, Yuki Tsunoda took 11th for VCARB, ahead of Williams driver Alexander Albon and the Alpine duo of Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan.
Aston Martin displayed an improved form last time out in Qatar, but they seem to have made a step backward in Abu Dhabi. Fernando Alonso finished in P15, over a second adrift of Piastri's benchmark. The Spaniard looked fairly competitve through the opening two sectors, but he endured a big loss in Sector 3.
His team-mate Lance Stroll was 18th quickest, with Sauber's Valtteri Bottas and RB's Liam Lawson ending up between the two Aston Martin drivers.
Ahead of his final race with the Swiss squad, Zhou Guanyu was in P19, with Williams racer Franco Colapinto having brought up the rear of the field.
