Final Practice Report: Abu Dhabi’s Last Adjustments
Midday heat, a rapidly evolving track, and a championship that still refuses to settle down quietly. FP3 at the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Saturday, December 6, 10:30–11:30 UK) is the last “clean” hour before qualifying turns Yas Marina into a pressure cooker.
The title picture is brutally simple and brutally tight: Lando Norris leads the Drivers’ Championship on 408 points, with Max Verstappen on 396 (-12) and Oscar Piastri on 392 (-16) heading into the weekend. McLaren have already sealed the Constructors’ Championship (800 points), but the Drivers’ crown is still live ammunition. If you want to sanity-check every possible points permutation, RaceMate’s calculator is built for this moment: simulate championship scenarios.
FP3 is always a strange beast in Abu Dhabi: it’s run in daylight while qualifying and the race are under the lights. But it still matters—because the final tweaks (ride height, diff maps, brake migration, and traction management) are often the difference between a front-row start and getting swallowed in the DRS trains.
FP3 classification: 0.004s, then a cliff that isn’t
George Russell topped FP3 with a 1:23.334—by four thousandths. In a session broken by a red flag and traffic, the headline isn’t just “who’s P1”; it’s how many cars are in the same performance postcode.
Top 10 (FP3)
- George Russell (Mercedes) — 1:23.334
- Lando Norris (McLaren) — +0.004
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) — +0.124
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) — +0.251
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren) — +0.259
- Esteban Ocon (Haas) — +0.271
- Oliver Bearman (Haas) — +0.275
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) — +0.341
- Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) — +0.373
- Alex Albon (Williams) — +0.388
FP3’s wider picture: P1 to P10 is covered by 0.388s. That’s not “Mercedes are suddenly dominant”; that’s a grid where execution—clean out-laps, tyre prep, and traffic management—can swing rows.
What FP3 at Yas Marina actually measures (and what it doesn’t)
Yas Marina’s modern layout still asks the same core questions:
- Can you rotate in slow speed without cooking the rears? (Turns 5–6 and the traction zones that follow)
- Can you stay stable over kerbs without bouncing? (the “jumps” that drivers hate and tyre life hates even more)
- Can you attack the long straights without sacrificing Sector 3? (where the lap is “won” when the rear stays under you)
But the key FP3 caveat is conditions. FP3 is hotter, with lower grip and different wind sensitivity. That’s why teams treat the hour like a checklist:
- one qualifying-style soft run (timing and prep matter)
- one medium/hard balance check (race platform)
- then micro-adjustments: front wing clicks, differential and torque delivery, ride height and kerb compliance
If you want the “full weekend context” before this hour, pair this report with our build-up pieces:
The defining moments: clean laps, messy sessions
Russell’s late strike: Mercedes find their one-lap bite
Russell’s lap is the classic FP3 signature: late-session, low fuel, soft tyre, and a car that finally switches on as the track rubbers in.
What makes it significant isn’t just P1—it’s the shape of the margin. When you beat Norris by 0.004s, you’re not “ahead”; you’re “within the same braking trace.” Mercedes’ upside here is clear: if they can repeat this prep window in qualifying, Russell becomes a genuine spoiler in a three-way title fight.
Also noteworthy: Antonelli P9 reinforces that Mercedes had a workable baseline across both cars—useful when the goal is to avoid chasing setup ghosts between sessions.
McLaren: Norris looks planted, Piastri looks “back online”
For the championship leader, this was a controlled session:
- Norris P2, with 20 laps completed—valuable in a stop-start hour.
- Piastri P5, closer to Norris than Friday suggested.
McLaren’s key FP3 win is less about the stopwatch and more about platform confidence. In Abu Dhabi, if you can lean on traction without overheating, you can defend position when the DRS trains form.
For readers tracking the title narrative, this pairs directly with: Championship Decider: Norris vs. Verstappen vs. Piastri.
Verstappen: quick enough, but still fighting the car
Verstappen’s P3 (+0.124s) is exactly the kind of result that keeps Red Bull’s Sunday hopes alive—because race pace can be a different story.
The concern is the same one that’s popped up when Red Bull miss the sweet spot: ride compliance and stability over bumps/kerbs. In Abu Dhabi, instability doesn’t just cost time—it costs tyre life, because every correction loads the rear surface and accelerates thermal degradation.
Ferrari: Hamilton’s crash turns prep into triage
FP3 pivoted on a single moment: Lewis Hamilton crashed, bringing out the red flag and compressing everyone’s run plans.
Beyond the obvious repair job, it’s a preparation hit:
- Hamilton ended P18 with only 8 laps.
- Ferrari lose the clean learning loop that FP3 is meant to provide: soft prep, brake consistency, and high-fuel balance checks.
Leclerc’s P8 looks “fine” on paper, but with the top ten inside four tenths, Ferrari’s question becomes: do they have the confidence to attack kerbs and still rotate in Sector 3?
Midfield tells: Haas show teeth, Williams stay relevant
Two of the most eye-catching FP3 positions aren’t at the very top:
- Haas P6 (Ocon) and P7 (Bearman)
- Williams P10 (Albon) and P12 (Sainz)
At Yas Marina, midfield pace is often about straight-line efficiency and traction discipline. If Haas can translate this into qualifying, they’re in the fight for points before the first pit stop even exists.
Long-run pace: what FP3 hints at (and what Friday told us)
Let’s be honest: FP3 is not the cleanest long-run session at Abu Dhabi. The daylight track temperature differs from the race, and the red flag further chopped up stint rhythm.
So our long-run read has to be built from two things:
- tyre behaviour and strategic signals from Friday (more representative conditions)
- FP3 balance cues (who looks stable enough to convert long-run potential)
Tyres, degradation, and the “one-stop unless…” baseline
Pirelli’s early weekend picture matters here:
- the medium and hard look like the most consistent race tyres
- the soft is more of a qualifying weapon unless track evolution reduces graining
- the performance gap between hard and medium is small (around a couple tenths), while medium-to-soft is a much bigger jump
Translated into strategy language: a one-stop remains the default expectation, but a well-timed Safety Car or unexpected graining could still open a two-stop window.
Who looks kind to tyres?
In this specific FP3, the “long-run indicators” are mostly about car behaviour:
- McLaren looked composed in slow-speed traction zones—important because rear management is usually the limiting factor over 58 laps.
- Red Bull still had signs of instability (“jumping”), which can hurt the driver’s ability to keep the tyre surface temperature in the sweet spot.
- Mercedes found late-session sharpness; the open question is whether that speed is “single-lap only” or supported by a stable race platform.
If you’re looking for the cleanest long-run read of the weekend, re-anchor your expectations to the twilight work from Friday—and then treat FP3 as a final confirmation of balance rather than a full race simulation.
The strategic implication for the title contenders
Because the points gaps are small, the title fight is likely to reward the driver who can:
- qualify in clean air (minimise exposure to DRS trains)
- keep tyres alive through the heavy traction zones
- avoid time loss in traffic (and avoid penalties/impeding incidents)
This is why the “boring” FP3 details—out-lap spacing, tyre prep timing, and stable braking—are secretly championship levers.
What to watch next: qualifying pressure points
Qualifying at Yas Marina isn’t just about raw lap time; it’s about manufacturing a lap.
Key things to watch after this FP3:
- Traffic and tows on the big straights (a tow can be worth real lap time here)
- Kerb usage vs stability (ride height decisions show up under braking)
- Tyre prep discipline (softs that aren’t in the window by Turns 5–6 bleed time all lap)
- Red flag risk (a single incident can flip the grid—and the championship math)
For the qualifying-specific lens, this pairs with: Qualifying Spotlight: Abu Dhabi’s Pressure Cooker.
RaceMate takeaway: margins this small don’t stay theoretical
FP3 gave us the cleanest possible summary of the 2025 finale: the performance difference is tiny, and the consequences are huge. Russell’s 0.004s edge over Norris is a reminder that the title may not be decided by “pace” in the abstract—but by execution under pressure.
McLaren still look like the team with the most complete platform, Red Bull still have a Verstappen-shaped threat capable of turning a weekend on its head, and Mercedes have just put a hand up at the worst possible time for everyone else.
If you want to game out what each finishing position means for Norris, Verstappen, and Piastri—especially with fastest lap and edge-case scenarios—use RaceMate’s championship simulator and stress-test your predictions before lights out.
And if Abu Dhabi does what Abu Dhabi usually does? The last adjustment won’t be a front-wing click. It’ll be a decision made at Turn 5, with everything on the line.