© Getty ImagesFree Practice – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021Hitting the track for the final practice sessions of the season at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Well,thisisit!Welcometothelong-awaitedseasonfinaleandwehavetogoallthewaybackto1974forthelasttimeaDrivers’Championshipwasthisclosegoingintothefinalrace.
Back in 1974 the finale was held at Watkins Glen, New York and battled out between Emerson Fittipaldi and Clay Regazzoni. 47 years later, the final battle is between Lewis Hamilton and our Dutch lion Max Verstappen (but you already knew that) and being held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.
First raced in 2009, Abu Dhabi quickly became synonymous with the climatic final race for every season. The track is dominated by its long straight between turns five and six, with slow-speed corners bookmarking either end. Other corners of note are the challenging run through turns 10 and 11 into 12, which forces the drivers to brake hard with bags of lateral load still on the car.
Track modifications ahead of this year’s race has seen the lap shorten slightly to 5.281km. This race will consist of 58 laps creating a race distance of 306.183km. And due to the new layout, there is currently no track record.
Max Ready For Final Season Battle In Abu Dhabi© Getty Images
With the Bulls keen to get their first taste of the new layout, they were both out on track early in the first session of the finale, Free Practice One.
Checo left the pits first on soft tyres and his first flyer was a 1:28.336, he quickly improved with three more flyers, one of which the time was deleted due to exceeding the track limits. However, when he returned to the pits after his first stint, he had completed 10 laps in total with a best time of 1:25.994, and it saw him in P3.
Max also went out on the red-walled tyres and instantly went to P1 with a 1:26.463, but as others got more comfortable with the lew layout, Max dropped back. Not to be outdone, Max put in two more flying laps and clocked in a best time of 1:25.300 putting him back at the top of the timesheet, before he returned to pits for the Team to work on his RB16B.
Checo came back out with a fresh set of soft tyres on and continued to shave more time off. At the end of the session, he had completed 24 laps with a best time of 1:25.363, which saw him in P4.
Max had the same strategy as Checo and also improved his times. Max finished P1 with an unbeatable 1:25.009 after completing 23 laps.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Max Verstappen | Valtteri Bottas | Lewis Hamilton | Sergio Pérez | Yuki Tsunoda | Fernando Alonso | Pierre Gasly | Charles Leclerc | Carlos Sainz | Sebastian Vettel |
| Red Bull Racing Honda | Mercedes | Mercedes | Red Bull Racing Honda | AlphaTauri | Alpine | AlphaTauri | Ferrari | Ferrari | Aston Martin |
| 1.25.009 | 1.25.205 | 1.25.355 | 1.25.363 | 1.25.378 | 1.25.625 | 1.25.822 | 1.25.846 | 1.25.886 | 1.26.007 |
Checo Out On Softs In Abu Dhabi© Getty Images
Max and Checo both left the pits for Free Practice Two on fresh sets of medium tyres. Max set a best time of 1:24.989 on the mediums, but the time was deleted due to Max exceeding track limits. He did set a time of 1:25.065, which saw him in P2 after his first stint. Checo’s first spell in the session saw him set a 1:25.423 which put him in P6.
After returning to the pits the Bulls re-joined the session on softs. Max improved and set a best time of 1:24.332, which saw him finish the session in P4. Checo finished the session in P5, just 0.068s behind his teammate.
With 15 minutes of the session remaining the Bulls came out on the track for long runs. For this Checo was on a set of used medium tyres. Max came out on some used softs for the first eight laps and then swapped for a set of used mediums until the chequered flag. Max’s total lap count of the session was 25, with Checo compiling 26 laps in total.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Esteban Ocon | Valtteri Bottas | Max Verstappen | Sergio Pérez | Fernando Alonso | Yuki Tsunoda | Charles Leclerc | Carlos Sainz | Pierre Gasly |
| Mercedes | Alpine | Mercedes | Red Bull Racing Honda | Red Bull Racing Honda | Alpine | AlphaTauri | Ferrari | Ferrari | AlphaTauri |
| 1.23.691 | 1.24.034 | 1.24.083 | 1.24.332 | 1.24.400 | 1.24.495 | 1.24.532 | 1.24.557 | 1.24.844 | 1.24.940 |
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021: Free Practice
Sunset Track Ride For Max In Abu Dhabi© Getty Images
Checo Out On The Track In Abu Dhabi© Getty Images
On The Track Limits In Abu Dhabi© Getty Images
Under The Desert Lights At Yas Marina Circuit© Getty Images
Taking In The Desert Views© Getty Images
The View From Above At Yas Marina Circuit© Getty Images
Max Looks Ahead To Race Weekend© Getty Images
We are still learning and understanding a few things. I'm looking forward to qualifying tomorrow to put it all together.
“I like the new track layout, it’s more fun to drive with the faster corners especially in the last sector. We made a few changes to the set up across the two sessions and I do think they are positive. We are still learning and understanding a few things. The short run didn’t go to plan, we are lacking a bit of pace but I think the long runs were more competitive so that’s important. I’m looking forward to qualifying tomorrow to put it all together.”
Checo Ready For Season Finale© Getty Images
We've got plenty of information that we need to go through in detail.
"I don’t know how much the track has improved since last year. It’s still nice to drive but there are question marks for me on whether it has improved the racing. I think we have some work to do overnight after today’s sessions. We ran very different set-ups across the two cars, so we've got plenty of information that we need to go through in detail and pick out the best parts for qualifying. There will be learnings to take forward into our final practice session so we can look to qualify strongly on Saturday.”
The final practice session of the season saw Max and Checo out on medium tyres for the first stint. When they both came into the pits at the halfway point, Checo had completed 10 laps and was sitting in P3 with a 1:24.723. Max went round 13 times and posted a best time of 1:24.828, putting him just behind his teammate in P4.
The Bulls came out on the soft tyres for the second half of the session. Max finished the FP3 with 23 laps completed and a best time of 1:23.488, which saw him in P2 behind Lewis Hamilton by just 0.214s. Checo finished the session in P4 with 1:24.047 being his best time. Checo completed 21 laps in total.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Max Verstappen | Valtteri Bottas | Sergio Pérez | Lando Norris | Yuki Tsunoda | Pierre Gasly | Carlos Sainz | Daniel Ricciardo | Charles Leclerc |
| Mercedes | Red Bull Racing Honda | Mercedes | Red Bull Racing Honda | McLaren | AlphaTauri | AlphaTauri | Ferrari | McLaren | Ferrari |
| 1.23.274 | 1.23.488 | 1.24.025 | 1.24.047 | 1.24.106 | 1.24.223 | 1.24.251 | 1.24.595 | 1.24.733 | 1.24.758 |
