Practice 3 Report - Russell edges Norris

George Russell
© Mercedes

George Russell topped a hectic, red-flag-affected FP3 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, denying Lando Norris a sweep of all three practice sessions and setting up a finely balanced qualifying fight to close the 2025 Formula 1 season.

Russell’s 1m23.334s, delivered on soft tyres in the final minutes, was enough to keep the Mercedes driver 0.004s ahead of Norris, who had earlier set the benchmark multiple times as the Yas Marina circuit evolved rapidly. Norris, who leads the championship by 12 points over Max Verstappen, looked poised to secure a clean practice sweep after heading FP1 and FP2, but the late flurry of laps in FP3 shuffled the order just in time to keep the Briton second.

The session began slowly, with teams wary of committing tyres in conditions that were neither fully cool nor representative of qualifying. Only Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto completed early push laps. Norris eventually broke the deadlock with a 1m24.728s, later trimming that down to 1m24.533s as more drivers switched to soft tyres.

Verstappen then emerged as a threat, taking over at the top with a 1m24.245s while Lance Stroll and Oliver Bearman temporarily held second and third. But with the track rubbering in quickly and the field bunching up, traffic became a defining factor—Norris dodged a slow Yuki Tsunoda at Turn 12, while Liam Lawson lost time behind Esteban Ocon.

The session’s rhythm was broken with 29 minutes remaining when Lewis Hamilton spun his Ferrari into the Turn 9 barrier, reporting that “something buckled at the front” before the SF-25 snapped loose. The red flag lasted 11 minutes, leaving teams just 18 minutes to compress their remaining qualifying-sim work.

As soon as the green flag flew, lap times tumbled. Verstappen dipped to 1m24.116s before Oscar Piastri jumped to the top with a strong 1m23.593s. Norris bettered that by 0.255s, producing a 1m23.338s thanks to an especially sharp final sector.

A pit-lane clash added late drama when Mercedes released Andrea Kimi Antonelli into the path of Tsunoda, eliminating the Red Bull driver on the spot. The session stayed green, and Russell made the most of the clear track with his decisive 1m23.334s—just enough to deny Norris by four thousandths, with Verstappen third at 1m23.458s.

Fernando Alonso delivered an impressive 1m23.585s for fourth, while Piastri’s earlier best left him fifth on 1m23.593s. Haas again showed strong underlying pace, with Ocon (1m23.605s) sixth and Bearman (1m23.609s) seventh. Charles Leclerc took eighth on 1m23.675s, Antonelli ninth on 1m23.707s, and Alex Albon rounded out the top ten with 1m23.722s.

With less than two hours before qualifying, the margins at the front—0.004s between Russell and Norris, 0.120s separating Verstappen from the top—signal a title-defining Saturday ahead.