George Russell bids Mercedes for pole position in the Abu Dhabi GP. The Englishman achieved an excellent 1’24″418 on the soft tyres, half a second faster than last year. George worked on the flying lap, while Lewis Hamilton was sacrificed by the Star to work on race duration: no surprise , therefore, seeing the seven-time world champion only 12th, but he worked with significant loads of fuel. The session which took place with 43 degrees on the track is not significant, because qualifying will end at sunset with very different conditions. in fact both McLarens are behind the black arrow: Lando Norris arrived 95 thousandths from the top, despite a scary cross at the last corner, while Oscar Piastri is third, three tenths behind his teammate: the Australian was certainly more relaxed, avoiding unnecessary risks. The feeling is that the Woking team could be the protagonists this afternoon.
The time of Alexander Albon, fourth and last, was positive, breaking the 1’25” barrier with the Williams. The Anglo-Thai surprised by being the fastest in the first and second sectors, leaving Russell only the text. FW45 looks in good shape as Logan Sargeant also climbed to eighth place.
Charles Leclerc is fifth with a Ferrari that has not yet pushed the power unit with the strongest map. The Monegasque’s six tenths don’t seem credible to us: the Monegasque, like Sainz, dedicated a good part of the session to doing long run tests with different fuel loads. The Scuderia favored the medium tires with the race in mind and didn’t look for a flying lap, so it shouldn’t be surprising if we see Carlos Sainz last, 1.2 seconds from the top. They rebuilt the Spaniard’s car after yesterday’s bad crash in turn 3 (where the organizers “smoothed” the bump) and Carlos like Charles committed himself to finding the pace for the long run.
And Red Bull? It seemed to be in serious difficulty not only with Sergio Perez, 11th, but also with Max Verstappen. The Dutchman is arguing with the setup of the RB19 which, strangely, suffers from strong bottoming which makes Newey’s car very nervous. The Milton Keynes technicians worked on both the front height and the bars of the Dutchman’s car. This is an unusual circumstance for a driver who is used to taking to the track and setting the reference time. It is clear that seven tenths from Mercedes is not a realistic reference, but it will be interesting to understand what is happening on the RB19.
Esteban Ocon is eighth with Alpine, while Pierre Gasly who has thought about duration is 13th. The top 10 is completed by Yuki Tsunoda with the AlphaTauri equipped with the new surface which is already a prefiguration of 2024. The Japanese set the time, while Daniel Ricciardo took care of the duration and was satisfied with a colorless 18th time ahead of Kevin Magnussen , author of a wide with Haas.
The Chinese Zhou is tenth with the Alfa Romeo equipped with the new front wing, while Valtteri Bottas is 16th and like other colleagues has dedicated himself to long runs. The work done by the very competitive Aston Martin was strange with both drivers in the opening stages: Fernando Alonso, 15th, preceded Lance Stroll by a margin. The “green” should not be overlooked: the positive moment seems to continue. He will have to keep an eye on the flying lap to stay with both AMR21s in the top ten.
Nico Hulkenberg didn’t impress: when he tried a tight lap he had to give up because his brakes hadn’t reached temperature.
#Abu #Dhabi #Free #Practice #Russell #precedes #McLarens