As the sun dipped over Abu Dhabi for the first twilight running of the weekend, Norris once again proved the benchmark. His 1m23.083s lap put him 0.363s clear of Verstappen, reinforcing the strong pace he showed earlier in FP1.

Just as in FP1, the McLaren driver immediately found time on the soft tyres once the field moved on from the harder compounds. Verstappen also made strong gains after the tyre switch but simply couldn’t match Norris’s late progression, with the Dutchman left chasing by a few tenths as the track evolved.

Piastri initially looked competitive, running within a tenth of Norris on the harder compounds. But once he switched to the softs, the Australian couldn’t extract the same performance.

Mistakes on both of his flying laps — most notably a lock-up at Turn 6 — saw him lose time in the middle sector and slip well down the order. He ended the session more than six tenths behind Norris and three tenths shy of Verstappen, leaving plenty of work ahead for Saturday.

There was also a brief flashpoint between the front two championship leaders, with Norris complaining that Verstappen had impeded him early in the session. Verstappen appeared unsure whether Norris was on a hot lap, and although the moment was noted by the stewards, no further action was taken.

Behind the title protagonists, George Russell led the chase for Mercedes in third place, followed by an impressive pack of rookies and midfield runners. Oliver Bearman, Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto all delivered standout laps for Haas and Sauber, continuing the strong form both teams showed earlier in the day.

Bearman, in particular, seemed taken aback by Haas’ pace, telling the team “I don’t know how it’s so good” after delivering his quickest lap of the session — a notable follow-up to his top-ten result in FP1 despite earlier sensor troubles.

Sauber’s duo again demonstrated encouraging speed on both compounds, reinforcing the team’s promising start to its final weekend before transitioning to the Audi works project.

Isack Hadjar, newly confirmed as a 2026 Red Bull race driver, finished an assured seventh in his final Friday session for Racing Bulls, edging Charles Leclerc by a single thousandth of a second. Fernando Alonso brought Aston Martin into the top ten, with Kimi Antonelli rounding out the group in tenth.

With this being the final race weekend of the current regulation cycle, the field remains remarkably compressed. The top 16 drivers were separated by less than a second, underlining how tightly matched the grid has become as the era draws to a close.

Only Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson, Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly ended the session more than a second adrift of Norris.

Saturday action at the Yas Marina Circuit begins at 2.30pm local time (9.30pm AEDT).