With the sun dipping over the desert circuit and strong winds whipping across the track, drivers spent much of the hour wrestling with grip, balance and visibility.

But Piastri was the one who pieced together the cleanest lap when it counted, clocking a 1m20.924s to lead Norris by just 0.058s.

At a venue where he has never been beaten by Norris in race trim, the session offered Piastri a timely platform.

Trailing his teammate in the title fight, the 24-year-old knows he needs a sharp, error-free weekend to keep his championship hopes alive, and FP1 was a promising start.

Most teams ran the bulk of the session on hard tyres as they navigated Pirelli’s strict 25-lap limit per tyre set across the weekend.

With both the soft and medium compounds expected to feature heavily on Sunday, the hards took the brunt of the mileage early on before drivers switched to softs for their late-session qualifying simulations.

That tyre swap proved key. Norris had struggled for rhythm on the hards and was among several drivers to run wide as the gusty conditions unsettled cars.

But once the softs went on, the Briton advanced rapidly up the order to form a familiar McLaren one-two.

Piastri’s benchmark lap arrived deep into the closing minutes, with Norris finishing three tenths clear of Fernando Alonso, who slotted into third for Aston Martin.

Carlos Sainz delivered an encouraging fourth for Williams, just ahead of Isack Hadjar, who impressed again by putting his RB inside the top five.

Max Verstappen ended the session sixth, followed by Alex Albon and Charles Leclerc. Lance Stroll ensured both Aston Martins made the top ten, while Kimi Antonelli led Mercedes’ efforts in 10th, with the entire top ten covered by less than a second.

Verstappen, needing a strong weekend to maintain momentum in his pursuit of a fifth straight world title, spent much of the session frustrated.

The Dutchman complained persistently about handling issues and was particularly unhappy with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine, which he felt compromised one of his push laps.

Strong early pace on the hards faded when he switched to softs, leaving Red Bull with setup work to do ahead of qualifying.

Cars return to the track for Sprint Qualifying at 8:30pm local time (4:30am AEDT).