A lot is at stake F1 Abu Dhabi GP this weekend, the last event of the season, where Ferrari and McLaren are fighting for the Constructors’ World Championship and Leclerc is fighting for the runner-up positionwith English leading by just 8 points.
However, what was seen in Free Practice 1 was still far from that real fire, as it was a session with periods that were still not very representative, marked above all. due to having up to 6 young pilots replacing the regular pilots only in this FP1 apart from Jack Doohan, who debuted as an official Alpine driver in place of the crashed Ocon.
The highlight of the weekend was exactly what happened in the pits and not on the track. Leclerc and Ferrari did not start the weekend with good news. They made the battle for the Constructors’ World Championship (and Charles’ second place) by changing the battery in Leclerc’s car and installing the third of the year.. So, Charles will start Sunday with a 10 place grid penalty that will complicate things for those in red.
After installing the new battery, after half an hour in the pits, Leclerc came out on the asphalt and beat Lando Norris by 0.221 after ‘Il Principino’ did the first round of medium tires with nine laps to start analyzing the behavior of tires, their wear and tear and how to keep them at the right temperature. He knows that this weekend he will have a big challenge in a race where it will be difficult to catch up.
Lots of young talent
Hadjar drove the Red Bull in place of Verstappen, Iwasa is at the RB wheel for Tsunoda, Arthur Leclerc, brother of Charles, was on track with his brother, both with Ferrarisreplaced Carlos Sainz, while replaced by Browning Albon and Williams, Hirakawa did the same to Piastri at McLaren and Drugovich was sitting in the Aston Martin instead of Lance Stroll.
In that context, the important thing is to see the work that Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris are starting to do on their cars without missing a session because of how much they are at stake. And for now, the Monegasque leads the session with 1’24.321 on a circuit where Ferrari can aim everything at Sainz after the penalty of Charles, pending the confirmation of the sensations in a more representative FP2.
Mercedes starts behind Ferrari and McLaren
In its part, Mercedes started third for Lewis Hamilton in his farewell weekend for those from Brackleyeven 0.485 behind Charles’ best time, with Russell in fourth place, 8 tenths away.
Gasly was 5th at Alpine and Hülkenberg was 6thwith Colapinto 7th waiting to find out what his future holds, close to Haas and Pierre, all three a second behind the best.
Alonso, 11th
Fernando Alonso did not start the Abu Dhabi F1 GP with a good feeling. He finished in 11th position, 1″1 behind Leclerc, and has a worrying ratio in front of his intentions to fight to finish the year in the points: “Worst car ever and worst traffic preparation. Next time I’ll do the exit lap alone”.
So it was clear that Aston Martin had to apply a significant change of settings for Free Practice 2 to try to straighten out the balance of the car to improve, as happened in Qatar, where Alonso was more competitive on Saturday in eligibility. than on Friday in the sprint classification.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
