Lando Norris and McLaren added to Ferrari’s misery in the race for the Constructors’ Championship as they clocked the 1-2 in Friday evening’s practice in Abu Dhabi.

Although McLaren led the way on the medium tyres, Ferrari were able to mix it up with them but didn’t have the pace on the soft Pirellis to challenge their Constructors’ rivals. McLaren have a 21-point lead over Ferrari heading into Sunday’s finale.

Lando Norris leads McLaren 1-2 in FP2

As the sun began to set over the Yas Marina circuit, the Formula 1 drivers returned to the track although for six – Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Oscar Piastri, Lance Stroll, Yuki Tsunoda, and Alex Albon – it was a first outing after FP1’s young driver runs.

In a busy start to the session, Liam Lawson, Charles Leclerc and then Lando Norris sat up in P1 in the first 10 minutes while George Russell reported “quite a lot of vibrations” with his opening gambit eight-tenths down.

Norris upped his pace to a 1:24.3, putting two-tenths between himself and Sainz who is contesting his final Grand Prix weekend in red. McLaren and Ferrari dominated the top positions on the timesheet in the opening 20 minutes with Leclerc third ahead of Oscar Piastri.

Verstappen was sixth fastest, almost a full second down on Norris and told Red Bull: “No power, still the understeer is ridiculous.” He pitted for a front wing adjustment, and took P5 off Russell.

F1 2024: Team-mate head-to-head stats

👉F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

👉F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

A midsession lull saw Leclerc’s mechanics surrounding his car with several on the ground as they checked his car’s floor and skid plank. Franco Colapinto was the last driver to head back into the pits, silence descending over the Yas Marina circuit.

Sergio Perez broke that as he ventured back out, followed by his rivals as the drivers swapped their medium Pirellis for shiny new softs.

Perez took half a second off his medium best, but it was the McLarens who were flying as Piastri went quickest before Norris upped his pace by eight-tenths. P1 with a 1:23.5, two-tenths up on Piastri in a McLaren 1-2.

While his rivals were laying down the laps, Colapinto was still in the pits having run wide in the final sector, clobbering a kerb. The Argentinean driver was out of the FW46 as Williams worked on his floor.

Despite their performance on the medium tyres, Ferrari weren’t able to match McLaren on the soft tyres with Sainz P4, six-tenths down and even slower than Nico Hulkenberg, while Leclerc was sixth and behind Lewis Hamilton.

Williams’ troubles were compounded when Alex Albon slowed on the track, his FW46’s right-rear brake smoking as he came out of Turn 5. He crawled his way back to the pits.

The session ended with Norris on top in a McLaren 1-2, the team-mates up on Hulkenberg. As for Verstappen, the reigning World Champion was down in 17th place.

Times

1 Lando NORRIS 1:23.517
2 Oscar PIASTRI +0.234
3 Nico HULKENBERG +0.462
4 Carlos SAINZ +0.582
5 Lewis HAMILTON +0.602
6 Charles LECLERC +0.684
7 Valtteri BOTTAS +0.713
8 Kevin MAGNUSSEN +0.718
9 Alexander ALBON +0.752
10 Yuki TSUNODA +0.980
11 Liam LAWSON +0.986
12 Pierre GASLY +1.000
13 George RUSSELL +1.017
14 Sergio PEREZ +1.038
15 ZHOU Guanyu +1.040
16 Fernando ALONSO +1.057
17 Max VERSTAPPEN +1.081
18 Lance STROLL +1.169
19 Jack DOOHAN +1.444
20 Franco COLAPINTO +1.748

Read next: Christian Horner strikes back with ‘rather a terrier than a wolf’