Liam Lawson capped off a strong day of practice in the United Arab Emirates with a respectable eleventh fastest effort in FP2 of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Kiwi’s 1:24.503, a time over one second quicker than his best FP1 effort, placed him just 0.006 behind his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who completed the top ten. Lawson completed an incident-free 25 laps in FP2, to go with the 27 earlier in the day.
McLaren surged to the top of the leaderboard in second practice, with Lando Norris leading the way with a 1:23.517, a time over two-tenths faster than teammate Oscar Piastri.
Following Piastri in third was departing Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, who impressed to jump Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz by one-tenth.
Lewis Hamilton followed the driver he replaces with the Italian manufacturer in fifth, just 0.002 seconds behind, and one-tenth ahead of future teammate Charles Leclerc.
After battery issues sidelined the #16 Ferrari for half of FP1, Leclerc faces a 10-place grid penalty for the race, handing the Manufacturers’ Championship advantage to McLaren, who enter the round with a 21-point advantage over their rivals.
Valtteri Bottas, who has no seat in 2025, was seventh fastest for Sauber, 0.005 seconds ahead of Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, who pipped Alex Albon by 0.034 seconds.
Both Williams cars experienced issues in FP2, with Albon losing drive mid-way through the session and spending time in the garage. He returned for a brief five-minute run at the end of the session.
Franco Colapinto, meanwhile, damaged his floor as he ran wide exiting the Turn 9 hairpin and running over the kerb.
Both Albon and Colapinto will accrue five-place grid penalties after the team replaced gearbox components on both cars.
Tsunoda completed the top ten, six-thousandths to the good of his Kiwi teammate.
Sergio Perez battled his way to 14th for Red Bull, three places ahead of World Champion Max Verstappen, who complained of understeer several times on his way to the 17th fastest time, over a second off the pace of Norris.
Formula 1 returns for FP3 at 11.30 pm on Saturday and Qualifying at 3.00 am the next morning.
The season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix goes green at 2.00 am on Monday.
| 1st | Norris | 1:23.517 |
| 2nd | Piastri | +0.234 |
| 3rd | Hulkenberg | +0.228 |
| 4th | Sainz | +0.120 |
| 5th | Hamilton | +0.020 |
| 6th | Leclerc | +0.082 |
| 7th | Bottas | +0.029 |
| 8th | Magnussen | +0.005 |
| 9th | Albon | +0.034 |
| 10th | Tsunoda | +0.228 |
| 11th | Lawson | +0.006 |
| 12th | Gasly | +0.014 |
| 13th | Russell | +0.017 |
| 14th | Perez | +0.021 |
| 15th | Guanyu | +0.002 |
| 16th | Alonso | +0.017 |
| 17th | Verstappen | +0.024 |
| 18th | Stroll | +0.088 |
| 19th | Doohan | +0.275 |
| 20th | Colapinto | +0.304 |
Header Image: Getty Images/ Red Bull Content Pool
