F1: Hamilton tops final practice over Verstappen in Abu Dhabi

Lewis Hamilton appears poised to win the pole and the Abu Dhabi GP.  His ‘trick rocket’ engine in his Mercedes powered him to a lap of 1m23.274s to comfortably lead final practice for the Abu Dhabi GP in his #44 Mercedes.

His title rival Max Verstappen manhandled a disgruntled RB16B for 2nd quick time for Red Bull Honda, 0.214s back. He’ll be no match for Hamilton come qualifying or the race.

Yes, Hamilton looks quick. But Verstappen didn’t nail all three sectors at any point, and had reliability issues to boot with his rear wing needing changing midway through the session.

Once again, the rest of the field was out to lunch.

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas was third, a massive 0.751s behind just ahead of the 2nd Red Bull of Sergio Perez 0.773s behind Hamilton.

The Mexican could yet get involved in this fight, which Red Bull will need him to in order to have an optimum strategy tomorrow. But it certainly seems to be pressure on Red Bull at the moment after a scrappy session – but then again, they didn’t look great in Saudi Arabia until THAT last lap.

Lando Norris rounded out the top-5 for McLaren, ahead of the AlphaTauris of Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly.

The heat of the day meant this session was not entirely representative of the times we will see in a couple of hours as the sun sets.

Practice 3 Results