Russell fastest in Abu Dhabi FP3 as title rivals battle behind

The Mercedes driver claimed the top spot in the closing stages with a 1:23.334, preventing championship leader Lando Norris from completing a clean sweep of the practice sessions.

Norris had looked set to finish behind teammate Oscar Piastri after struggling in the first two sectors of his late push lap, but a blistering final sector gained him three-tenths of a second, ultimately edging Piastri by two-tenths. The Australian ended the session fifth, showing more comfort in his McLaren compared to yesterday.

Piastri’s pace was solid throughout, and he appeared to extract more from the car as the session progressed. However, he was nudged down the order late by Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso, with Verstappen showing strong pace on the soft tyres in the final runs.

The session highlighted how closely matched the field is heading into qualifying, with just 1.3 seconds separating first from 20th, and the top 17 all within a single second of each other.

The session was interrupted midway by a red flag after Lewis Hamilton crashed at Turn 9.

The seven-time world champion spun into the barriers in a full 360-degree rotation, hitting front first. He emerged unscathed but frustrated, saying over the radio something had “buckled” with the car. At the time of the incident, Hamilton had been showing solid pace in fourth, making the spin particularly aggravating.

Yuki Tsunoda was involved in two separate incidents that will be investigated. On one lap, he was nearly hit by Norris at Turn 11 after being slow on the racing line, raising his hand in apology. Later, Tsunoda was struck by a Mercedes release as Kimi Antonelli exited his garage directly into the side of the Red Bull.

Forced to sit out the remainder of the session while his team assessed the damage, Tsunoda finished last, with only Hamilton and the Alpine of Franco Colapinto also outside the one-second window of the fastest time.

Outside the top five, the remainder of the top 10 represented four different teams.

Haas impressed again, with Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman sixth and seventh respectively. Charles Leclerc was eighth for Ferrari, followed by Antonelli in ninth and Alex Albon in tenth.

Albon was also noted for an unsafe release during the session, which added to the drama of the flurry of cars returning to track after the red flag.

Warm and hazy conditions are expected to continue into the evening, setting the stage for a tense qualifying session.

Cars return to the track for qualifying at 6pm local time (1am AEDT.