Chares Leclerc will get 10-place grid penalty for battery change at Abu Dhabi GP in blow to Ferrari title hopes.
Ferrari’s hopes of profitable a primary System One constructors’ title since 2008 took an enormous hit as Charles Leclerc collected a 10-place grid drop and rivals McLaren have been one-two in Friday follow for the ultimate race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Leclerc was quickest within the first daylight session on the Yas Marina circuit however Ferrari then revealed that they had modified the battery in his automobile, a breach that triggered an computerized penalty.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was quickest within the floodlit second session, 0.234 faster than his Australian teammate Oscar Piastri.
Ferrari are 21 factors behind McLaren, who have been final champions in 1998, with 44 nonetheless to be received in Sunday’s twenty fourth and final race of the season with 2023 champions Purple Bull out of the operating.
McLaren able to bounce on Ferrari’s slip
McLaren principal Andrea Stella, who was beforehand at Ferrari, mentioned there was no sense of the stress being off, nonetheless. “We discuss Charles Leclerc. We discuss Ferrari. It’s a really sturdy mixture,” he mentioned. “I believe even with the penalty, I wouldn’t be shocked if we are able to see them very quickly preventing for the entrance, for the highest positions. So nothing modifications.”
Leclerc lapped with a finest time of 1 minute 24.321 seconds, with Norris 0.221 slower. Norris’s finest lap in second follow was 1:23.517.
Mercedes’ seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton and teammate George Russell have been third and fourth in follow one, with Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg a formidable third within the later session with Carlos Sainz fourth for Ferrari and Leclerc sixth.
Sunday’s race shall be Hamilton’s final for Mercedes earlier than becoming a member of Ferrari as Sainz’s substitute, with the Spaniard heading to Williams. Hamilton was fifth afterward with Russell thirteenth.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was fifth-fastest in session one, with new Australian teammate Jack Doohan solely nineteenth in getting ready for his first race as substitute for Esteban Ocon.
The pair have been twelfth and nineteenth respectively afterward.
Williams’ Franco Colapinto and Alex Albon will each have 5 place drops for mechanical modifications, one other blow to a crew reeling from a spate of expensive crashes which have pushed them to the brink on spares.
Colapinto, who will hand over his seat to Sainz for subsequent season, hit a kerb and broken his automobile’s ground within the second session.
Abu Dhabi GP hosts an F1 first
In a System One first, two brothers took to the observe for a similar crew within the opening session — Leclerc being joined by youthful brother Arthur (18th) who was driving Sainz’s Ferrari.
Six of the ten groups had a younger driver on the wheel of one in every of their vehicles within the afternoon session, fulfilling an obligation to present them observe time.
Japan’s Ryo Hirakawa changed Piastri, Isack Hadjar drove quadruple champion Max Verstappen’s Purple Bull, and Felipe Drugovich was in Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.
Ayumu Iwasa stood in for fellow-Japanese Yuki Tsunoda at RB and Luke Browning for Albon.
Verstappen, final yr’s race winner who has been engaged in a bitter row with Russell that has been the discuss of the paddock, returned for follow two and was seventeenth with teammate Sergio Perez 14th.
