F1 Abu Dhabi GP: Hamilton tops final practice from Verstappen

The afternoon session started with the usual install laps which, uncharacteristically, included both championship protagonists right from the start.

Verstappen immediately embarked on a medium tyre run and demoted Esteban Ocon's opener with a 1m24.997s lap. Later on in the run he lowered his early benchmark by a tenth with a 1m24.828s effort.

After 10 minutes Hamilton came out on soft Pirelli tyres, which yielded a 1m24.241s lap to go top, while Bottas entered the top three one second behind.

Hamilton then increased the gap to Verstappen to seven-tenths of a second with a 1m24.055s lap, while the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez slotted in just 0.004s behind his teammate.

As many drivers sampled the harder compounds, Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi spent the early stages in the top five behind the Mercedes and Red Bull cars thanks to a soft tyre run.

Before the halfway mark Bottas claimed top spot only for Hamilton to strike back with a 1m23.274s lap, while Perez leapfrogged his team-mate to take over third.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and McLaren man Lando Norris were fifth and sixth at that stage, the first of the hard tyre runners.

Meanwhile Verstappen was stuck in the garage for a rear wing swap as Reb Bull trialled two different specs.

With his new wing the Dutchman tried on the soft tyres, but he still wasn't happy with how his car was behaving, saying "it still doesn't turn in Turn 6, it's unbelievable" on the team radio after aborting a first push lap.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, leaves the garage

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda briefly vaulted to third on softs, half a tenth ahead of Perez, until the frontrunners embarked on more qualifying simulations.

On his second attempt Verstappen did manage to make inroads on Hamilton's benchmark, his 1m23.488s just two tenths shy of his rival, while Hamilton also had to abort a lap after flat spotting a tyre.

As both title contenders seemingly struggled for grip, the earlier times held until the end, Hamilton heading into Saturday's final qualifying session of 2021 with a slight advantage over Verstappen.

Bottas and Perez were third and fourth, with Norris best of the rest in fifth. Tsunoda held on for sixth, just ahead of team-mate Pierre Gasly.

Sainz, McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo and the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc locked out the top 10.

Outside the top 10 Aston Martin's Lance Stroll was 11th, followed by Ocon and Alfa Romeo duo Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi.

Former world champions Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel were 15th and 16th respectively.

George Russell and Nicholas Latifi were 17th and 18th for Williams, while Haas drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin propped up the timesheets.

F1 Abu Dhabi GP - FP3 results

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	23	1'23.274
2	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	23	1'23.488	0.214
3	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	21	1'24.025	0.751
4	Sergio Perez		Red Bull	21	1'24.047	0.773
5	Lando Norris		McLaren	17	1'24.106	0.832
6	Yuki Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	22	1'24.223	0.949
7	Pierre Gasly		AlphaTauri	22	1'24.251	0.977
8	Carlos Sainz Jr		Ferrari	20	1'24.595	1.321
9	Daniel Ricciardo		McLaren	16	1'24.733	1.459
10	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	21	1'24.758	1.484
11	Lance Stroll		Aston Martin	22	1'24.821	1.547
12	Esteban Ocon		Alpine	18	1'24.834	1.560
13	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	23	1'25.037	1.763
14	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	18	1'25.048	1.774
15	Fernando Alonso		Alpine	19	1'25.094	1.820
16	Sebastian Vettel		Aston Martin	25	1'25.115	1.841
17	George Russell		Williams	22	1'25.220	1.946
18	Nicholas Latifi		Williams	19	1'25.322	2.048
19	Mick Schumacher		Haas	18	1'25.340	2.066
20	Nikita Mazepin		Haas	19	1'26.332	3.058
View full results