Russell beats F1 2025 title contenders in final practice

George Russell beat championship leader Lando Norris to the fastest time in final practice for the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as Oscar Piastri finally got himself into the running near the front of the pack.
For most of the session it looked as though one of Norris or main F1 title rival Max Verstappen would end this session fastest, but a late lap out of nowhere lifted Russell’s Mercedes to the front.
He had languished outside the top 10 in the early part of the session, but after a red flag period - caused by Lewis Hamilton crashing midway through the hour - the Mercedes came out swinging.
Russell ended up quickest on a 1m23.334s best, just 0.004s clear of Norris with Verstappen a further 0.120s back, complaining of his Red Bull: “The problem is the car still jumps. I can’t keep my feet on the pedals.”
After being well off the pace on Friday, having missed FP1 to rookie running, outside title contender Piastri finally got himself going in the second half of FP3, lapping 0.255s off Norris.
But that was only good enough for fifth in the end, after a late lap from Fernando Alonso lifted the Aston Martin into the top four.
Hamilton had sat inside the top four after the early qualifying simulations, but he crashed heavily at Turn 9 after running a bit too wide approaching the left-hander, causing his Ferrari to bottom out and the rear to break traction after he turned in.
Hamilton ended up only 18th quickest after missing out on the best of the track conditions.
Haas again showed impressive pace with Esteban Ocon sixth and Ollie Bearman seventh, ahead of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.
Kimi Antonelli was ninth in the other Mercedes, which collided in the pits with Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull, causing damage to both cars in an incident referred to the stewards.
That meant Tsunoda, who at one stage had the fastest time of all in sector two, was stuck in the garage with a broken floor and so he ended up slowest of all.
Alex Albon’s Williams rounded out the top 10 ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto’s Sauber, the second Williams of Carlos Sainz and the other Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg, who was as high as third at one stage before a sequence of late improvements by others.
Only 0.645s covered the top 16 cars, with the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar bringing up the rear of that pack.
FP3 times