Mercedes’ George Russell set the fastest lap in final practice for the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating McLaren’s Lando Norris by less than a tenth of a second, as both Red Bull and Ferrari battled for balance.
Russell took the top spot from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez midway through the session and then made a series of improvements on the soft tires, ultimately setting the benchmark at 1: 24.418.
Williams’ Alex Albon closed out with a lap time of 1: 24.929 to within a tenth of Russell, but the Mercedes driver put some distance between him and his rival with a session best time.
The battle with Russell fell to the McLaren pair of Norris and Oscar Piastri, with Norris coming closest, recording a lap of 1: 24.513, just 0.095 seconds behind the Mercedes. The leading McLaren driver had a chance of taking the lead, but an accident on the exit of Turn 16 cost him time.
Meanwhile, Piastri moved into third place, 0.392 behind Russell.
Albon was able to maintain fourth place ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, but both were unhappy with the set-up of their cars. Leclerc reportedly lost time to Russell in sector 1 and 10th and 4th place to Russell in the final three sectors, with Monaco’s Leclerc saying he could not understand what caused the time difference.
Verstappen, on the other hand, was consistently dissatisfied, complaining that his car was “sliding a lot” and returning to Red Bull numerous times for front-end adjustments. He ended up posting a champion’s best time of 1: 25.
153, placing him in sixth place, 0.7 seconds behind Russell.
7th place goes to Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, while Logan Sargent completes the top 10 alongside his Williams teammate Albon, with a best time of 1: 25.205, good enough for 8th place and AlphaTauri He surpassed Hiroki Tsunoda of Japan and Guanyu Zhou of Alfa Romeo.
Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull finished 11th, just 0.033 seconds behind Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, with Pierre Gasly in 12th for the Alpines, ahead of the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Outperformed the crowd. Further back, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who suffered a serious accident in FP2, kept the timesheets in 20th place.
2023 FIA Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Free Practice 3
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:24.418 14 225.207
2 Lando Norris McLaren 1:24.513 0.095 16 224.954
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:24.810 0.392 16 224.166
4 Alexander Albon Williams 1:24.929 0.511 17 223.852
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:25.099 0.681 26 223.405
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:25.153 0.735 18 223.264
7 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:25.194 0.776 18 223.156
8 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:25.205 0.787 16 223.127
9 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:25.222 0.804 15 223.083
10 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:25.258 0.840 23 222.989
11 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1:25.259 0.841 21 222.986
12 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:25.292 0.874 25 222.900
13 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:25.303 0.885 18 222.871
14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:25.343 0.925 25 222.766
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:25.405 0.987 24 222.605
16 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:25.420 1.002 16 222.566
17 Nico Hülkenberg Haas 1:25.584 1.166 22 222.139
18 Daniel Ricciardo AlphaTauri 1:25.597 1.179 15 222.105
19 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:25.652 1.234 20 221.963
20 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:25.713 1.295 29 221.805
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