British driver Lando Norris led Australian team-mate Oscar Piastri in second practice on Friday as McLaren turned up the heat in their bid to secure the constructors’ title at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had topped the opening practice session at the Yas Marina Circuit ahead of Norris and Lewis Hamilton, but the Monegasque driver was then penalised for taking a new battery pack on his car. Leclerc’s 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race compromises the Italian team’s bid to capture a first constructors’ title since 2008.

Ferrari are seeking to overturn a 21-point deficit on leaders McLaren, who last won the constructors’ title in 1998, this weekend.

Norris clocked one minute and 23.517 seconds to beat Piastri by two-tenths of a second, ahead of third-placed Nico Hulkenberg of Haas.

Carlos Sainz was fourth fastest in the second Ferrari followed by seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, the British driver in his last race weekend with Mercedes.

Leclerc was sixth in the second Ferrari ahead of Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas, Williams’ Alex Albon and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda.

The feuding George Russell of Mercedes and newly-crowned four-time world champion Max Verstappen struggled to find the pace and wound up 13th and 17th, respectively, in a largely uneventful twilight session.

It began in cooling conditions after a hot day as the sun set in Abu Dhabi, RB’s Liam Lawson setting the early pace in 1:25.537, before Leclerc took over and then Norris. Hamilton slotted into second to repeat the top three from opening practice.

– Verstappen baby news –

Verstappen, complaining about his front axle performance, had sat out the earlier run as news that he is to become a father for the first time with Kelly Piquet, daughter of Brazil’s triple world champion Nelson Piquet, was confirmed in a social media post.

Piquet has a daughter, born in 2019, with former Red Bull driver Russian Daniil Kvyat.

“The understeer is ridiculous,” reported the Dutchman on team radio, while Russell, with whom he has fallen out in spectacular, acrimonious fashion, said his “cockpit is still reasonably toasty”, referring to the temperature of 27 degrees Celsius (80.6 Fahrenheit).

Between the sessions, Red Bull’s chief Christian Horner had hit back at Mercedes boss Toto Wolff’s description of him as a “yapping little terrier” for interfering in the Verstappen-Russell feud by describing the Mercedes driver as “hysterical”.

“I love terriers,” said Horner. “I think they’re great dogs. I’ve had four. I’d rather be a terrier than a wolf.”

Norris’ lap in 1:24.332 kept him on top ahead of Leclerc and Sainz with Perez fourth until Magnussen took second for Haas to revise the order, followed by Piastri as conditions changed in the twilight zone and soft tyre runs began.

With 27 minutes to go, Piastri took top spot briefly before Norris replied, the McLarens showing how keen they are to clinch the team’s first title since 1998 as Leclerc led Ferrari’s riposte, taking sixth, six-tenths off the pace.

“Half of the grid is sleeping,” complained Leclerc. “They’re in the way.”

Norris trimmed his lap to 1:23.517 with Piastri two-tenths behind ahead of Hulkenberg, Sainz and Hamilton with 11 minutes remaining. Russell was 13th and Verstappen 17th ahead of the final runs under the lights.

Formula One drivers on Thursday blasted the “tone and language” used by FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem amid a row over swearing at press conferences. In an open letter, the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) also demanded that competitors be treated like adults. Several drivers, including three-time world champion Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Monaco’s Charles Leclerc, were recently sanctioned by the FIA for swearing at a press conference. 

And Ben Sulayem has spoken out in favour of measures to ensure drivers no longer use foul language. 

On Thursday, the GPDA hit back with a letter posted on social media regarding ‘Driver Misconduct’.

“There is a difference between swearing intended to insult others and more casual swearing, such as you might use to describe bad weather, or indeed an inanimate object such as an F1 car, or a driving situation,” the letter read.

“We urge the FIA president to consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum or otherwise.

“Further, our members are adults. They do not need to be given instructions via the media, about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewellery or underpants.”

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has clashed with FIA bosses for wearing jewellery at races, with the governing body also reminding drivers of the need to wear flame-resistant underwear. 

The GPDA also stressed its opposition to financial sanctions against drivers and called on Ben Sulayem to clarify how they are imposed and how their proceeds are used.

Relations between Ben Sulayem, team bosses and drivers have deteriorated in recent months. 

The FIA president was accused at the start of the year of trying to derail the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix and influence the results of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix the same year. 

In both cases, the Emirati was cleared by the FIA Ethics Committee.

McLaren’s Lando Norris went fastest Friday to lead Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in second practice for the Singapore Grand Prix with world champion Max Verstappen struggling to 15th. The session could not have panned out much better for Englishman Norris, who trails Verstappen by 59 points at the top of the drivers’ standings. The second practice in Singapore is pivotal for the teams as it is the only session which is run under the same night conditions as the race around the 4.94km Marina Bay Circuit.

“I felt like I got a lot out of Friday,” said Norris. “A good start to the weekend and if we can keep it up I’ll be happy.”

Verstappen had 60 minutes to forget and was only 15th fastest in a skittish Red Bull that looked at times like it was on ice.

The Dutch three-time world champion was a massive 1.294 seconds adrift of Norris’s fastest lap of 1min 30.727sec.

“Today was difficult. We didn’t have the grip that we would have liked on the tyres, so I felt like we were sliding a lot more than usual,” admitted Verstappen, who had a bad day off the track too after earlier being reprimanded by stewards for swearing in the drivers’ press conference.

Leclerc, who had been fastest in first practice, clocked 1:30.785, just 0.058sec slower than Norris, but Sainz, who won in Singapore 12 months ago, was almost six tenths behind his teammate.

“There’s still some work ahead of us to get it to feel exactly as I want it to,” said the Monegasque Leclerc.

“We have to find the right balance and put it all together in qualifying tomorrow.”

Yuki Tsunoda in a much-improved RB was fourth ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri, fresh from his victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku last weekend.

The second RB driven by Daniel Ricciardo was sixth.

George Russell’s Mercedes, Sergio Perez’s Red Bull, Alex Albon’s Williams and the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10 on the timesheets.

‘Nothing seems to work’

Russell crashed into a wall at turn eight near the end of the session, but managed to limp back to the pits without his front wing which was embedded in the barrier.

His teammate Lewis Hamilton has won four times before in Singapore, but the seven-time world champion was a long way off the pace on Friday.

“At the moment, we won’t be going into Q3,” Hamilton said after coming 11th, 0.982 seconds behind Norris.

“We tried everything set-up wise and nothing seems to work.”

Singapore was the only race Red Bull failed to win last year in a dominant season.

They returned 12 months later having lost their lead at the top of the constructors’ standings to McLaren, who are 20 points ahead.

Verstappen has not won for seven grands prix as McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have all taken the chequered flag.

It looks odds-on that his fortunes will not improve around the unpredictable city centre track, where he has never won.

Meanwhile, McLaren said Friday they would modify their controversial rear wing after other teams, led by Red Bull, questioned its legality.

Governing body the FIA had said the wing, which was dubbed by some observers as a “mini-DRS (drag reduction system)” after footage showed it moving at high speed, was legal and no modifications were needed.

“While our Baku rear wing complies with the regulations and passes all FIA deflection tests, McLaren have proactively offered to make some minor adjustments to the wing following our conversations with the FIA,” said a McLaren statement.

“We would also expect the FIA to have similar conversations with other teams in relation to the compliance of their rear wings.”

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri held off pole-sitter Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari for an epic win.© AFP

Charles Leclerc on Saturday set himself up to bid for another emotional Ferrari victory when he claimed his fourth consecutive pole position on the streets of Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Monegasque driver, who triumphed at Monaco in May and won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza two weeks ago, continued his supreme current form to beat McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by three-tenths of a second. Despite three previous poles in 2021, 2022 and 2023, Leclerc has yet to taste victory in Azerbaijan.

In a dramatic qualifying session with title-chasing Lando Norris, in the second McLaren, eliminated in Q1 in 17th place, Leclerc clocked a best lap of one minute and 43.365 on his final run to take his career 26th pole.

Series leader and three-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who leads Norris by 62 points, qualified only sixth.

“It’s amazing to be on pole,” said Leclerc.

‘The pace was there’

“The car felt really good and everything was great. It’s one of my favourite tracks. I really like it. It hasn’t been an easy weekend because of my crash in FP1.

“It didn’t make me lose confidence, as I knew that the pace was there, but you’ve got to be back up to speed.

“In Q3 and qualifying, it was all about trying to stay away from the walls and on the last lap I went for it a bit more – and the lap time came very nicely.”

His Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz was third in the second Ferrari ahead of Sergio Perez of Red Bull and Mercedes’ George Russell.

“Its the best we could hope for,” said Leclerc.

“The left side of the grid is a little bit less grippy, so first and third is where you want to start here and hopefully we can play a team game tomorrow to win.

“It’s going to be a long race. In the past, we have been very strong in qualifying and struggled a bit in the race, but this year we have a stronger race car — so I hope we can finally make it tomorrow.

“Tyre management will be a big thing so we’ve got to do a good job again. We did a good job in Monza, but we have to re-set every race we do so this is another race with other issues.”

Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz qualified third.

“We had a solid qualifying and we’re in a good position. I’ve never felt 100 per cent hooked up around here in my career and I tend to struggle on this track, but this is a good position. And my race pace seemed strong — so I think it is all to play for.”

Sergio Perez was a strong fourth for Red Bull on a track he enjoys, ahead of George Russell of Mercedes and Verstappen.

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was seventh for Mercedes ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and Argentine new boy Franco Colapinto who out-paced his more experienced Williams team-mate Alex Albon.

Charles Leclerc at Azerbaijan GP© AFP

Max Verstappen will look for an improved personal and team performance this weekend when Red Bull seek to stop the rot and stay on top in the Formula One title race at this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. After a run of six races without a win that has coincided with the revival of his rivals, the Dutchman arrives in Baku with a 62-point lead in the drivers’ championship ahead of Lando Norris. His team’s advantage ahead of McLaren has also been trimmed to only eight points.

Verstappen’s and Red Bull’s last victory, his 61st, came at the Spanish Grand Prix in June while team-mate Sergio Perez last won on the streets of Baku, claiming his sixth career triumph and second in Azerbaijan in last year’s race.

Red Bull’s supreme domination that has seen them leading the constructors’ championship for more than two years, since the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix, will end if McLaren outscore them by nine points on Sunday.

In the aftermath of Aston Martin’s glossy unveiling of Red Bull’s star designer Adrian Newey as future managing technical partner on Tuesday, another defeat to knock them off the top could be seen as significant.

Both Verstappen and Mexican Perez have been busy working on finding solutions to their slump in form since Charles Leclerc claimed victory for Ferrari at Monza on September 1.

“Monza was a tough race for us and it is our priority to get our form back to where it needs to be,” said Verstappen.

“We always want to be more competitive and the team has been working hard on the issues we’ve had.”

“We’ve had a good period of reflection and work since the last race,” said Perez. “Both Max and I have been in the factory working to ensure we are finding a fix for the problems.

“To get back to where we should be on the grid, it will take a team effort and you can see that every day in Milton Keynes. This has pulled us all together.”

Perez leaning on Baku memories

Perez finished eighth at Monza, two places behind three-time world champion Verstappen, while both Ferraris, both McLarens and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton filled the top five.

After a season of much speculation about his future at Red Bull following a string of poor results, he welcomes the return to a venue he likes.

He is the only two-time winner in Baku and has scored more points there than any other driver.

“Personally, I love to race there,” he said. “Street circuits suit my style and Baku is a fun track.”

Ferrari will also be filled with hope in Baku after their success with an upgraded car at Monza where revisions to the floor and other areas proved successful.

But team chief Fred Vasseur stressed that the team will be focused on consistency and not checking the championship standings this weekend as they chase down Red Bull and McLaren.

“We have to focus on doing a good job every weekend and if something has to come to us, it will come. It’s no good to focus on the championship and be conservative… everything can change so much from one week to the next.”

With McLaren and Mercedes both claiming wins in recent races, a close scrap on the fast and challenging street track is in prospect, with Ferrari’s reserve driver Oliver Bearman replacing Kevin Magnussen alongside Nico Hulkenberg at Haas.

Dane Magnussen has been banned after accumulating 12 penalty points.

Charles Leclerc won the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday to delight Ferrari’s massed ranks of fans as Lando Norris again chipped away at struggling champion Max Verstappen’s lead in the Formula One drivers’ standings. Monegasque Leclerc claimed victory at Monza for the second time after winning in 2019, holding off McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Norris in a thrilling race in which Verstappen finished nearly 38 seconds off the pace in sixth. Huge roars engulfed the stands as Leclerc took the chequered flag for his second win over the season, after his own home Monaco GP, after holding out on a set of hard tyres he had changed during his one and only pit stop on the 16th lap.

“I thought that the first time would feel like this and the second time wouldn’t feel as special,” said Leclerc as he basked in the cheers of fans who made the track a joyous, noisy sea of red after the race.

“But my god the emotions in the last few laps; Monaco and Monza are the two races I want to win every year and I’ve managed to win them this year. It is so, so special.”

All of Leclerc’s major rivals, apart from teammate Carlos Sainz who ended up finishing fourth ahead of his Ferrari replacement Lewis Hamilton, pitted twice and McLaren were hoping that the Ferrari pair would do the same.

Instead Leclerc managed to keep his tyres in good enough condition to stay ahead and in the end finish the race comfortably in front of Piastri, who had taken the race lead early on after an overtake manoeuvre on Norris which was as daring as it was tactically questionable.

“Not going to lie it hurts a lot. I did a lot of things right today,” said Australian Piastri.

“Happy with the race, the pace I achieved but when you finish second it hurts.”

Verstappen woes

Briton Norris — who clocked the fastest lap right at the end — will be disappointed by his finish after starting on pole but he managed to chop Verstappen’s championship lead to 62 points with eight races remaining as his Dutch rival’s barren run continued.

“We considered (pitting once) the whole race but it was impossible with our graining. Just disappointed. Ferrari did a better job, so hats off to them,” said Norris.

Verstappen has now failed to win any of the last six GPs after claiming the honours in seven of the first 10, and his and Red Bull’s dominance of F1 looks increasingly in question.

A fourth straight world title looked a near certainty when Verstappen won in Spain back in June, but since then he has only finished on the podium twice.

And his teammate Sergio Perez finishing in eighth meant that McLaren are now only eight points behind Red Bull in the constructor’s standings and look favourites to win it for the first time since 1998.

Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto, who replaced axed Logan Sargeant for Williams following his disastrous showing at the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend, finish in 12th in his F1 debut.

Earlier Leonardo Fornaroli became the first Italian to win the F3 title, the 19-year-old doing so without winning a single race in this year’s championship.

Trident driver Fornaroli overtook Australian Christian Mansell on the final corner of the 10-race season to grab third place and snatch the title from Gabriele Mini by two points.

Gabriel Bortoleto won the F2 race in dramatic fashion after starting last on the grid, cutting Isack Hadjar’s lead at the top of the stands to just 10.5 points with three races remaining in the season.

Championship leader Max Verstappen clocked one minute, 21.676 seconds.© AFP

McLaren’s Lando Norris dashed to victory at the Dutch Grand Prix Sunday, a superb drive consigning home favourite Max Verstappen to his first-ever loss in front of his “Orange Army” fans. The British driver claimed his second career chequered flag after winning in Miami in May, closing Verstappen’s lead over him in the world championship to 70 points, with the Dutchman coming second. Despite raucous encouragement from a packed Zandvoort circuit, Verstappen could not extract enough from his Red Bull to compete with a recently upgraded McLaren that is beginning to look like the car to beat in Formula One.

“It feels amazing… The pace was very strong and the car was unbelievable today,” said Norris, who also secured a point for the fastest lap. 

The start was critical. Questions have been asked of the starting ability of Norris, who has three times this season failed to convert pole position into a first lap lead.

And again Norris was sluggish off the line, allowing Verstappen to power around the outside to huge cheers from the crowd, who saw their man take a 0.9-second advantage into the second lap.

Buoyed by the fast start, Verstappen clocked the quickest lap in lap two, putting clear daylight between him and the McLaren of Norris.

But the McLaren had been the fastest car in the paddock all race weekend and Norris started slowly but surely eating into Verstappen’s lead.

By lap 17 out of 72, Norris was only a few tenths of a second behind Verstappen, the Dutchman complaining on his team radio of a lack of grip from his tyres.

‘I can’t go faster’

Norris passed him a lap later on the outside at turn one, Verstappen powerless to prevent the overtake and quickly falling further behind.

“I can’t go faster. The car is not responding to my inputs,” a desperate Verstappen told his engineers as Norris stretched his advantage to more than four seconds.

On lap 25, Verstappen decided enough was enough and he needed a new set of tyres.

Norris pitted the lap after, his team taking 0.6 seconds longer than the Red Bull for the pit stop.

Nevertheless, Norris emerged from the two stops five seconds ahead of his rival and promptly produced the fastest lap of the race on his new set of tyres.

By lap 40, Norris had extended the advantage to more than 10 seconds over the three-time champion and just had to stay out of trouble to take the chequered flag.

His eventual margin of victory was 22.896 seconds, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc holding off Norris’s McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to claim the third podium spot after a thrilling battle.

Red Bull’s struggling second driver Sergio Perez finished in sixth position, meaning the gap in the constructors’ championship also narrowed from 42 points to 30.

“I wouldn’t say a perfect race because of lap one again, but afterwards it was beautiful,” said Norris.

“I expected Max to start pushing and get a bit of a gap. And he never did. So from that point, I knew we were in with a good fight,” added Norris.

“But he seemed to just keep dropping off. And my pace was getting better. So it’s a nice feeling inside the car. And especially when I got past, you know, I could just get comfortable.”

The F1 circus now moves on to the famous Monza track in Italy next weekend, round 16 of 24 with everyone snapping at Verstappen’s heels.

Verstappen has not won a Grand Prix since Barcelona in June, his longest barren spell since 2020 and while it is premature to talk of panic stations at Red Bull, the Dutch weekend will have given some cause for concern.

“You always try to do better and we had a good start, we tried everything we could today, but throughout the race it was quite clear that we are not quick enough, so I tried to be second today,” said Verstappen.