Racing News

Sport newsMax Verstappen grabbed pole position for the championship-deciding 2025 FIA Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, finishing two tenths of a second ahead of title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Verstappen goes into the final race of the season 12 points behind championship leader Norris and with blistering pace in Q3 of the hour-long session at Yas Marina the Dutchman put himself in the best possible position to challenge for a fifth consecutive title. After easing through the first two parts of qualifying, Verstappen benefited from tow from Red Bull Racing team-mate Yuki Tsunoda to grab provisional pole at the start of Q3, three tenths clear of Piastri and Norris. But with the McLaren pair set to switch from scrubbed to new Soft tyres for the final runs the expectation was for a tight fight for P1 on the grid, However, in the end, four-time champion Verstappen didn’t need any more assistance and a blistering final flyer of 1:22.207 put him 0.201s clear of Norris, with Piastri a further 0.029s back in third. “In Q2 I stayed on scrubbed tyres, and I think those laps already felt quite decent,” said Verstappen of his session. “And then in Q3, you know, the track temp is coming down and you know that you can push a bit more and that's exactly what we did. We found a bit more lap time and, of course, incredibly happy to be in first. That's the only thing that we can do, right? That's the only thing that we can control, try to just maximise everything we have and then do what we can with the car – and we definitely did that in qualifying.”Behind the top three, George Russell was fourth for Mercedes ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, Gabriel Bortoleto took seventh for Kick Sauber ahead of Haas’ Esteban Ocon and Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar. After sacrificing his opening lap, Tsunoda in his final race for Red Bull racing for the time being, qualified in P10, his first Q3 appearance since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in September. In the middle segment, Verstappen, on a used set of Softs set the pace at 1:22.912. Russell moved ahead of that with a lap of 1:22.730 on new tyres, while Norris slotted into P2 just 0.074s on used Softs. Piastri, also on used Softs, then made his way to P4. Verstappen then improved to 1:22.752, still on scrubbed tyres, to steal P2 from Norris before heading back to the pits to sit out the final runs. And as the times flowed in the top three all held their positions. Alonso jumped to P4 in the final runs, with Bortoleto improving to fifth. Leclerc went through in sixth ahead of Hadjar and Piastri, who backed out of his lap. Ocon was ninth and Tsunda, aided by a purple second sector, scraped through in P10.The Japanese driver’s lap of 1:23.034 saw him through just 0.007s ahead of Bearman who was dumped out of the session in P11 ahead of Williams’ Carlos Sainz, the other Racing Bulls car of Liam Lawson, Antonelli and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.The big faller in Q1 was Lewis Hamilton and again it was Tsunoda who scraped past. The Japanese driver’s time of 1:23.386 was good enough for 15th and 0.008s ahead of Hamilton who dropped out ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon, Hülkenberg and that Alpine’s of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto. 2025 FIA Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Qualifying 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:22.207 - -2 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:22.408 0.201 0.2453 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:22.437 0.230 0.2804 George Russell Mercedes 1:22.645 0.438 0.5335 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:22.730 0.523 0.6366 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:22.902 0.695 0.8457 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:22.904 0.697 0.8488 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:22.913 0.706 0.8599 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:23.072 0.865 1.05210 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT - - -11 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:23.041 0.834 1.01512 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:23.042 0.835 1.01613 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:23.077 0.870 1.05814 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:23.080 0.873 1.06215 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:23.097 0.890 1.08316 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:23.394 1.187 1.44417 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:23.416 1.209 1.47118 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:23.450 1.243 1.51219 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:23.468 1.261 1.53420 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Renault 1:23.890 1.683 2.047 FIA Formula One World ChampionshipF1SEASON 2025SportCircuit1SportFIA Formula One World ChampionshipCircuitSEASON 2025F101Saturday, December 6, 2025 - 5:37pmSaturday, December 6, 2025 - 5:37pm

Sport newsGeorge Russell went quickest in the final hour of practice for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, outpacing championship leader Lando Norris by just 0.004s with title contender Max Verstappen in third. Oscar Piastri was fifth in a session that also Lewis Hamilton bring out the red flags. The session, held in the heat of the early afternoon, got off to a slow start with just the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll and the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto on track. Gasly, on Soft tyres, set the initial benchmark at a relatively sedate 1:25.984 but after 123 minutes McLaren driver Norris headed out on track the C5 tyres and he immediately carved well over a second off the Frenchman’s time, posting a lap of 1:24.728 to take P1. In the other McLaren, Piastri posted a Soft tyre opener of 1:25.128 but he was beaten to P2 by Red Bull Racing’s Yuki Tsunoda who logged a time of 1:24.893. The track was rapidly improved and Haas’ Ollie Bearman then jumped to second place, just 0.008s off Norris with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc into third on 1:24.830. Hamilton then moved to top spot with a lap of 1:24.470.Verstappen joined the action just after the 20-minute mark and the Red Bull driver’s first Soft-tyre lap of 1:24.245 took him to P1, over two tenths clear of Hamilton. Just afterwards there was a nervous moment for Norris. The Briton was on a flying lap when he came across Tsunoda in the middle of the track in the tight final sector and the McLaren driver had to take rapid evasive action to avoid a collision. There was a crash for Hamilton, however. As the session reached the halfway mark the seven-time champion appeared to ground his car on the kerbs as he approached Turn 9. That seemed to destabilise the Ferrari and as he went into the corner a snap of oversteer sent him spinning off. Hamilton hit the barriers nose-first, wrecking the front of his SF-25. The red flags came out and the session was halted for 13 minutes. With just over a quarter of hour remaining on the restart it was time for qualifying runs, and it was Russell who made the most of low fuel and C5 tyres. Verstappen’s first lap saw him improve to 1:24.116, but then Piastri vaulted from P18 to top spot with a lap of 1:23.593. Norris moved clear to 1:23.338 despite getting a snap in the hairpin. Russell was going quicker than all three, however, and he took top spot with a lap of 1:23.334 that left him 0.004s ahead of Norrris. Verstappen put in two more laps to work down to 1:24.458 to finish third, 0.124 off Russell. There was late drama in the pit lane. Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli was released into the path of Tsunoda. The Italian rookie broke his front wing but was able to continue after repairs, but Tsunoda’s session ended due to sidepod damage, and he ended up in 20. Behind Verstappen, Alonso was fourth for Aston Martin ahead of Piastri and the Australian was followed by the Haas pair of Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman. Leclerc was eighth ahead of Antonelli Mercedes and the top 10 was rounded out by Williams’ Alex Albon.  2025 FIA Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Free Practice 31 George Russell Mercedes 1:23.334 14 228.1372 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:23.338 0.004 20 228.1263 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:23.458 0.124 15 227.7984 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:23.585 0.251 17 227.4525 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:23.593 0.259 17 227.4306 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:23.605 0.271 19 227.3977 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:23.609 0.275 16 227.3878 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:23.675 0.341 18 227.2079 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:23.707 0.373 14 227.12010 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:23.722 0.388 18 227.08011 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:23.791 0.457 16 226.89312 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:23.811 0.477 18 226.83813 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:23.870 0.536 17 226.67914 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:23.895 0.561 19 226.61115 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:23.947 0.613 16 226.47116 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:23.979 0.645 17 226.38517 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:24.072 0.738 19 226.13418 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:24.470 1.136 8 225.06919 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Renault 1:24.501 1.167 18 224.98620 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:24.693 1.359 10 224.476 FIA Formula One World ChampionshipF1SEASON 2025SportCircuit1SportFIA Formula One World ChampionshipCircuitSEASON 2025F101Saturday, December 6, 2025 - 1:14pmSaturday, December 6, 2025 - 1:14pm

Sport newsChampionship-leading McLaren driver Lando Norris made it a clean sweep in Friday practice for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating Red Bull title rival Max Verstappen by almost four tenths of a second, as Oscar PIastri could only manage the 11th fastest time of the second practice session in the other McLaren.The evening session, run in similar conditions to those drivers will experience in qualifying and the race got off to a busty start with a mix Medium and Soft tyres in use. And it was Soft tyre runner Ollie Bearman who set the pace initially, with the Haas driver posting a lap of 1:24.744s on the C5 tyres to take top spot. The Briton was then replaced by Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, who was also out on the C5. Behind then Norris was quickest of the Medium tyre runners, while Kick Sauber’s Nico Hüllkenberg was fast on Hard tyres.Hadjar and Bearman held on as the top two almost until the halfway mark, but just ahead of 30 minutes Verstappen headed out on a set of Soft tyres and the Dutchman immediately vaulted to the top of the order with a lap of 1:23.446, a tenth clear of Hülkenberg who also moved to the C5 compound. Mercedes George Russell then dislodged the German driver to steal P2.Norris was also now out on the red-banded tyres and he went well clear, posting a lap of 1:23.082 to moved more than three tenths ahead of Verstappen. The Dutchman didn’t respond and instead moved to the Medium tyre to conduct longer runs and as the rest of the field also switched to assessment of race pace, the order froze. Behind Verstappen, Russell held on to P3 ahead of Bearman who punched in a lap of 1:23.501 in a Haas car he described “insanely good”. Hülkenberg completed the top five, just under half a second off Norris’ P1 time and the German was immediately followed by team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto who ended the session just under a tenth ahead of Hadjar. Charles Leclerc was eighth for Ferrari ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and the top 10 was rounded out by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli. That left title hopeful Piastri in P11. The Australian missed FP1 as Pato O’Ward was given a regulation-fulfilling run out and once back in the car Piastri struggled to find a comfortable balance and ended up 0.68s seconds off the pace of his team-mate. 2025 FIA Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Free Practice 21 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:23.083 28 228.8262 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:23.446 0.363 31 227.8313 George Russell Mercedes 1:23.462 0.379 29 227.7874 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:23.501 0.418 28 227.6815 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:23.550 0.467 28 227.5476 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:23.570 0.487 28 227.4937 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:23.657 0.574 29 227.2568 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:23.658 0.575 31 227.2539 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:23.708 0.625 27 227.11810 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:23.750 0.667 29 227.00411 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:23.763 0.680 29 226.96812 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:23.832 0.749 29 226.78213 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:23.872 0.789 31 226.67314 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:23.939 0.856 29 226.49315 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:23.950 0.867 32 226.46316 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:23.958 0.875 27 226.44117 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:24.303 1.220 29 225.51518 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:24.474 1.391 32 225.05819 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Renault 1:24.771 1.688 28 224.27020 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:24.963 1.880 30 223.763 FIA Formula One World ChampionshipF1SEASON 2025SportCircuit1SportFIA Formula One World ChampionshipCircuitSEASON 2025F101Friday, December 5, 2025 - 3:37pmFriday, December 5, 2025 - 3:37pm