George Russell pipped Formula 1 championship leader Lando Norris by a razor-thin margin atop the final F1 Abu Dhabi GP practice, as Lewis Hamilton suffered a dramatic crash that reshaped the entire 60-minute showdown.
The Mercedes driver clocked a blistering 1:23.334 on soft tires in the dying minutes to headline FP3 timesheets, amplifying the pressure on McLaren and Red Bull title protagonists at the season finale.
The green light flickered on at precisely the scheduled start, but the pit lane stirred sluggishly as strategists held back, wary of burning precious soft tire sets in these unrepresentative early conditions—two and a half hours earlier than Sunday’s grand prix kickoff under floodlights.
Alpine duo Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto broke the ice first, venturing out on medium compounds for baseline long-run data, with Gasly posting the initial 1:28.456 benchmark that evoked little excitement among rivals glued to their monitors.
Williams’ Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz soon joined the fray, dipping into the 1:26s on hards, but the real momentum built when Lando Norris unleashed a purposeful 1:24.728 on fresh reds that lit up the timing screens and signaled his intent to extend his FP1 and FP2 dominance atop the order.
Norris wasted no time refining, slashing to 1:24.533 amid a growing field, while Max Verstappen momentarily flickered threats but held back, conserving his tyres for the hotter runs.
Traffic snarls emerged early as the track rubbered in rapidly, bunching midfield packs and testing driver patience around Yas Marina’s narrow confines.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll surprised with a sharp early soft lap for provisional second, edging Oliver Bearman into third, as Haas demonstrated weekend-long form with consistent grip from their upgraded floor package.
Bearman’s teammate Esteban Ocon slotted into the mix with clean sectors, foreshadowing their top-six potential, while Liam Lawson in the Racing Bulls VCARB 03 struggled behind Ocon’s dirty air at Turn 12, costing vital tenths in sector two.
Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull dawdled on track, nearly impeding Norris who swerved dramatically—Tsunoda’s apologetic hand wave noted by stewards but without penalty.
By the 20-minute mark, 14 cars circulated, lap counts climbing modestly: Norris at eight laps, Piastri nursing his McLaren after FP1 curtailment, and midfielders like Gabriel Bortoleto in Kick Sauber accumulating mileage on mediums.
Full 2025 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP3 Results
Full 2025 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Qualifying Results
However, drama erupted just 29 minutes in when Lewis Hamilton crashed his Ferrari SF-25 while pushing on a qualifying simulation on softs.
Approaching Turn 9’s sharp right-hander—a notorious compression zone where kerbs punish over-ambition—Hamilton’s rear twitched violently, puffs of smoke betraying snap oversteer as the car bottomed out, spinning helplessly into the barriers with front-right suspension crumpling on impact.
“Something buckled at the front and snapped the rear,” Hamilton radioed calmly, clambering unhurt from the wreckage to retrieve his shattered front wing endplate, though Ferrari telemetry dismissed mechanical failure, attributing it to a driver error amid changing grip.
The incident triggered a Red flag, halting proceedings for 11 to 13 minutes as marshals cleared debris and Hamilton trudged back to the garage, his session effectively curtailed with just a 1:24.470 personal best erased by the shunt, plummeting him to 17th.
The session resumed with 18 minutes left on the clock, unleashing a frenzied qualifying sim rush as tires hit optimal windows in the cooling air.
Verstappen pounced first, banking a 1:24.116 purple sector stormer, but Oscar Piastri countered fiercely for McLaren, storming to provisional pole with 1:23.593.
However, championship hunter extraordinaire Lando Norris immediately eclipsed his teammate with 1:23.338, wrestling oversteer through the twilight esses but nailing sector three for a 0.255s improvement that had McLaren pits erupting.
Chaos compounded in the pits when Kimi Antonelli’s mechanics released him blindly into Tsunoda’s path—the Mercedes’ nose clipping the Red Bull sidepod, ending Tsunoda’s day prematurely and stranding him 20th.
George Russell capitalized on the clear air in the final gasps, threading his W16 through traffic to ultimately top final F1 Abu Dhabi GP practice session with a 1:23.334, snapping McLaren’s practice sweep dreams.
Norris missed out on the top spot by four thousandths, while Verstappen settled for third, 0.124 seconds adrift after struggling with a ‘jumpy’ front-end yet his low-lap count of 15 betrayed Red Bull’s qualifying focus.
Fernando Alonso’s veteran masterclass propelled Aston Martin to fourth as Piastri held fifth, 0.259 seconds adrift. Ocon, Bearman, Leclerc, Antonelli and Albon rounded out the top ten.
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