Championship leader Lando Norris topped title challenger Max Verstappen for the top spot of the opening practice session at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Norris set the benchmark at 1m 24.485s with his third flying lap on a set of soft tires after his first attempt to set a time was spoiled by a spin at Turn 2. It was enough to beat Verstappen’s first attempt, but not by much, with the championship contenders separated by just 0.008s.
Charles Leclerc completed the top three for Ferrari at just 0.016s further back, while Kimi Antonelli ensured all four front-running teams were represented inside the top four by lapping 0.123s off the pace.
The session was remarkably tight, though FP1 is one of only two sessions run in the daylight, meaning conditions were unrepresentative of night-time qualifying and the twilight grand prix. It nonetheless raised expectations that the championship decider could be a closely contested contest.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the leaders, however, with Verstappen complaining late in the hour that “something might be broken on the car,” though when asked to specify where the issue was, he replied vaguely that the problem was “everywhere.”
Norris also curiously started the session sporting flow-vis paint on his rear wing despite it being a previously used part. His saved snap on softs also wasn’t his only excursion, the Briton sailing wide at the first turn late on his final laps while running on high fuel.
Despite his competitive flying lap, Leclerc lamented a lack of race pace, at least in the warm conditions.
“The car just feels like it has zero grip,” he radioed. “It’s unbelievable, I really don’t get it.”
Nico Hulkenberg was a competitive fifth for Sauber, his lap putting him just 0.144s slower than Norris and splitting Antonelli ahead from George Russell in the second Mercedes behind, the Englishman 0.1s further back.
Gabriel Bortoleto was seventh in the second Sauber ahead of Oliver Bearman, whose Haas was chronically problem-plagued through the hour. At first the team suspected a hydraulic problem, though the Englishman returned to the track shortly afterwards to set the eighth-fastest time just 0.274s slower than Norris. He was then told to retire the car, with the team later explaining it suspected a sensor problem was behind its woes.
Carlos Sainz was ninth for Williams ahead of Franco Colapinto, completing the top 10.
Ryo Hirakawa, the Toyota sports car star, was 11th in Esteban Ocon’s Haas, the veteran the quickest of an 11-strong field of junior drivers in action in FP1.
Isack Hadjar followed for Racing Bulls, beating Alpine reserve driver Paul Aron in Pierre Gasly’s car.
McLaren IndyCar star Pato O’Ward steered title contender Oscar Piastri’s car to 14th.
Arvid Lindblad, announced as a 2026 Racing Bulls driver during the week and currently sixth in the F2 championship, took Yuki Tsunoda’s Racing Bulls car to 15th ahead of Ferrari development driver Arthur Leclerc, who was in Lewis Hamilton’s SF25.
Ayumu Iwasa, the 2025 Super Formula champion, took Liam Lawson’s car to 17th ahead of Williams reserve driver Luke Browning, fourth in the F2 championship, in Alex Albon’s car.
Browning was the first driver more than 1s off Norris’s time in a respectable series of performances by the field of rookies.
Aston Martin dual rookies Jak Crawford – the American having placed second in the F2 championship this year – and Cian Shields completed the order.
