![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/f1_2025_R24_FP1.png\")
Results<\/p>\nLando Norris pipped main 2025 Formula 1 title rival Max Verstappen to top spot in first practice for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
The two, separated by just 12 points in the drivers’ championship, were split by just 0.008s in an FP1 session that the third title protagonist, Oscar Piastri, sat out – handing his car over to Pato O’Ward in one of nine ‘rookie’ changes at the Yas Marina circuit.<\/p>\n
Norris was initially 0.021s slower than Verstappen when the pair first switched to softs, the McLaren driver having set his time at the second attempt after aborting his first lap when he experienced a big snap over oversteer through the fast Turn 2 left-hander.<\/p>\n
But Verstappen did not improve on his second push lap – despite setting the fastest time overall in the second sector – and that allowed Norris to jump ahead on a 1m24.485s. The McLaren made its time up in the final sector, with Norris 0.128s faster than Verstappen’s Red Bull through that section.<\/p>\n
Verstappen later reported while on his long-run simulations that “I might have something broken on my car”, telling race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase “it’s everywhere now” when asked where the main areas of issue were.<\/p>\n
Charles Leclerc, who spun at the Turn 5 hairpin late on in the session, was third and just 0.016s off Norris’s time but complained at the end of the session of his Ferrari being “so slow” on his long run.<\/p>\n
The two teams that weren’t required to run rookies in FP1, on account of completing their obligations previously, occupied the next four spots in the order.<\/p>\n
Kimi Antonelli and George Russell were fourth and sixth for Mercedes, with Nico Hulkenberg fifth and two places ahead of team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto for a Sauber team that still has an outside shot of taking seventh place in the constructors’ championship this weekend.<\/p>\n
Ollie Bearman was eighth fastest for Haas but his session was compromised.<\/p>\n
He reported a loss of power in the first part of the session and was told this was a hydraulic leak. Despite then returning to the track, and lapping 0.274s off Norris on a set of medium tyres, Bearman was then told to retire the car for the session.<\/p>\n
Ryo Hirakawa, driving the second Haas in place of Esteban Ocon, was 11th and fastest of the FP1-only drivers.<\/p>\n
Luke Browning also lost time in the garage with a radio issue at Williams – he had unknowingly baulked Isack Hadjar in the final sector early in the session as a result – and was 18th, ahead of Aston Martin stand-in duo Jak Crawford and Cian Shields, who almost collided at Turn 2.<\/p>\n
Results<\/p>\n
1 Lando Norris (McLaren) 1m24.485s
2 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.008s
3 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.016s
4 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.123s
5 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +0.144s
6 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.248s
7 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +0.257s
8 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +0.274s
9 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +0.286s
10 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +0.370s
11 Ryo Hirakawa (Haas) +0.449s
12 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.492s
13 Paul Aron (Alpine) +0.719s
14 Pato O’Ward (McLaren) +0.761s
15 Arvid Lindblad (Red Bull) +0.771s
16 Arthur Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.875s
17 Ayumu Iwasa (Racing Bulls) +0.990s
18 Luke Browning (Williams) +1.005s
19 Jak Crawford (Aston Martin) +1.404s
20 Cian Shields (Aston Martin) +1.947s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris pipped main 2025 Formula 1 title rival Max Verstappen to top spot in first practice for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-329295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}