Charles Leclerc finished top in the F1 2024 Abu Dhabi test, with Carlos Sainz second quickest on his opening test day for Williams.

The afternoon session saw Kimi Antonelli well enough to take the place of Frederik Vesti for Mercedes, having been ill in the morning, with Arthur Leclerc stepping in for Ferrari in place of Antonio Fuoco and Oscar Piastri jumping in the Constructors’ title-winning McLaren, in place of Lando Norris.

Abu Dhabi post-season testing: Leclerc tops final day of F1 2024 running

Carlos Sainz topped the morning session in his first testing outing for Williams at Yas Marina on Tuesday, but the drivers continued to rack up the laps and gather as much data as possible to take into the winter break, before retiring the 2024 cars for the final time.

Despite being unwell, and cancelling a planned test in Super Formula at Suzuka later this week, Antonelli clambered into the cockpit at Mercedes to get as much running as he could in the afternoon session.

His best effort had been within a tenth of new team-mate George Russell heading into the final half-hour of the day, but beyond the headline times was the reliability of the cars on show – with the drivers racking up more than 2,500 laps between them come day’s end.

While the times were a little behind the 1:22.595 set by Norris in Q3 at the weekend, the cooler temperatures as the day progressed and lower-fuel running saw multiple different names at the top of the timesheet as the afternoon wore on.

McLaren reserve and IndyCar star Patricio O’Ward was the first to depose Sainz’s benchmark on a 1:24.365, before Mercedes driver Russell moved the times into the 1:23s.

Charles Leclerc, sharing the track for Ferrari with his brother once again after their historic FP1 outing on Friday, went quicker still on a 1:23.510 heading into the final 15 minutes, but his now-former team-mate Sainz was not far behind, putting himself second in his Williams a tenth back.

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Sainz, along with Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg, were all allowed to move to their respective new teams early to complete the day’s testing – and all gathered valuable data and learned their new machinery as they drove over 100 laps apiece between them.

Hulkenberg moved himself into the top five in his Sauber, splitting the Mercedes duo as he makes his return to the Hinwil-based team ahead of their transition to Audi, while Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa joined the top six while driving a VCARB machine, with the team set to go by the Racing Bulls moniker next season.

But with only eight minutes to go in the day, the red flag was thrown briefly before the session resumed once the cars were back in the pits, with the day having run relatively seamlessly for plenty of teams while on track.

While the fastest lap times are largely superfluous on a day of testing, the drivers have now completed their final day of track running in the F1 2024 season, with several of those to move teams getting a headstart on adjusting to their new surroundings, while multiple others were able to experience Formula 1 machinery as part of young driver running.

F1 2024: Abu Dhabi post-season testing classification

1 Charles Leclerc, Ferrari 1:23.510 134 laps
2 Carlos Sainz, Williams 1:23.635 146
3 George Russell, Mercedes 1:23.789 134
4 Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber 1:23.856 113
5 Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes 1:23.873 62
6 Ayumu Iwasa, Racing Bulls 1:24.100 110
7 Patricio O’Ward, McLaren 1:24.222 116
8 Jack Doohan, Alpine 1:24.268 137
9 Paul Aron, Alpine 1:24.275 121
10 Esteban Ocon, Haas 1:24.305 119
11 Luke Browning, Williams 1:24.375 105
12 Ryo Hirakawa, Haas 1:24.435 133
13 Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls 1:24.440 159
14 Arthur Leclerc, Ferrari 1:24.576 68
15 Isack Hadjar, Red Bull 1:24.632 125
16 Lando Norris, McLaren 1:24.678 84
17 Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull 1:24.689 127
18 Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber 1:24.738 130
19 Oscar Piastri, McLaren 1:24.838 72
20 Jak Crawford, Aston Martin 1:24.997 109
21 Felipe Drugovich, Aston Martin 1:25.019 146
22 Frederik Vesti, Mercedes 1:25.159 55
23 Antonio Fuoco, Ferrari 1:25.278 73

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