F1 Abu Dhabi GP: Norris leads McLaren 1-2 in FP2

Lando Norris led a McLaren 1-2 in second practice for Formula 1’s 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi, with Nico Hulkenberg third for Haas.

At Red Bull, Max Verstappen was again frustrated with his RB20’s handling as he ended up down in 17th, while McLaren’s constructors’ title rival Ferrari had a low-key session and Williams endured further setbacks on both its cars.

After Zhou Guanyu set the early first-place benchmark at 1m26.179s, which Liam Lawson bettered immediately to a 1m25.537s on the opening runs on the medium tyres at the start of the one-hour twilight session, Norris got ahead of both with his opening 1m25.020s.

Oscar Piastri slotted in just behind, before Carlos Sainz went to the top of the times with his first lap of the day now Arthur Leclerc has completed his rookie duties in the Spaniard’s SF-24.

But as the opening 10 minutes ended, Norris went back to first place with a 1m24.332s with his second run on the mediums and he was only temporarily headed thereafter.

Norris might have been temporarily shuffled first back when Franco Colapinto opened the soft-tyre qualifying simulation efforts after a lengthy lull in action just before the halfway stage, but the Argentine driver had to catch an oversteer snap through the fast, long Turn 9 hairpin and damaged his floor over the kerbs as he shot out wide.

Despite repairs being made to the floor, Colapinto did not reappear, while in the other FW46 Alex Albon had to crawl back to the pits at the start of his late-FP2 race simulation after losing drive. But he was able to get out again ahead of the final five minutes, finishing ninth.

Albon had taken that spot during the flurry of soft tyre laps that followed his team-mate’s aborted opening effort on that tyre, with Piastri the first of the frontrunners to do so. He finally did get ahead of Norris with a 1m23.751s – albeit with a big oversteer snap at the opening corner – before his team-mate eased back to the front a few minutes later.

Norris put in a 1m23.517s that put him first by 0.234s, with Sainz intially taking third for Ferrari, 0.582s.

But, with Charles Leclerc losing his opening softs lap after hitting traffic at the Turn 6-7 chicane that splits up the two long acceleration blasts at the Yas Marina track, Hulkenberg was able to nip in ahead with his soft-shod 1m23.979s, 0.462s down on Norris.

After Leclerc had finally set a lap that put him one spot behind soon-to-be new team-mate Lewis Hamilton in fifth and sixth, Hulkenberg had looked set to go even quicker on a second softs flier, but was undone by a slower final sector than his personal best.

Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen finished ahead of Albon in seventh and eighth, with Yuki Tsunoda 10th back aboard his RB car after making way for Ayumu Iwasa in FP1.

Sergio Perez was 14th as the lead Red Bull, with Verstappen three spots back and complaining several times about understeer on his car – the Dutchman’s best time coming in 1.081s down on Norris’s session-leading time.

The race simulations that closed out the session ran without incident, with Leclerc expressing an assessment that the McLarens are also looking very strong on high fuel too when informed about Piastri’s late pace.

Abu Dhabi GP – Free Practice 2