Norris and Verstappen closely matched in practice

The Formula 1 title fight is finely poised after Lando Norris and Max Verstappen appeared closely matched in Friday practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Norris' McLaren headed the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who is 12 points behind the Briton heading into the final race of the season, by 0.363 seconds at the top of the timesheets at Yas Marina.

That is a larger margin than Verstappen would have liked, but the four-time champion was closer on the race simulation runs later in the session, which are usually a more accurate gauge of form.

The third driver in contention, McLaren's Oscar Piastri, was 11th fastest, failing to achieve a clean lap on the fastest tyres.

The Australian is 16 points adrift of Norris and faces a stiff task to enter into serious title contention.

Norris will win his first F1 title as long as he finishes on the podium on Sunday, regardless of anyone else's results.

The maths are more complicated for Verstappen, but one way he can take a fifth consecutive title is to win the race with Norris lower than third, or be second with him lower than seventh.

McLaren, meanwhile, have said that if the race develops in such a way that Piastri is out of contention but Norris needs to gain a place to win the title, they will ask the Australian to help out.

Norris looked impressively quick on his single lap on the soft tyres that will be used for qualifying and he and Verstappen were the stand-out drivers on the race-simulation runs.

Norris was 0.209secs ahead on the race-simulation runs overall, but Verstappen ran almost twice as many laps as the McLaren.

Stop the runs at the same point, after eight laps, before tyre degradation kicks in for Verstappen, and the Red Bull was just 0.075secs on average slower.

Norris said: "From the times, things look good at the minute, but still want a bit more from the car. Not completely happy or confident.

"We are a bit in the middle of trying some things and trying to understand some things with the car.

"Hopefully some more stuff we can get out of it, but it's not been a bad day, for sure.

"It's been a good positive day. We always know it gets a lot closer going into qualifying so nothing to smile about yet."

Asked if he felt he had an edge going into tomorrow, Norris said: "No."

Verstappen, seeking his fifth consecutive drivers' championship, said: "Pretty OK. I was fairly happy with the car; we just need to be probably a little bit faster. We are still not quick enough but we have been in a decent window.

"It seems like it's a decent gap we need to close but we will just try to put the best car forwards and let's see how much we can find overnight. Single lap and long run needs to be better."

Piastri, who sat out the first session as McLaren IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward fulfilled one of the team's obligatory young driver test sessions, was not quite in the same ballpark as his rivals.

"I got there pretty well on the medium (tyre) but on the softs didn't get the most out of the grip on that first timed lap.

"Finding my feet but clearly some things to try and improve for tomorrow. But after just one session, not too bad. The car feels like it's in a pretty decent place. Some small tweaks of course, didn't feel perfect out there but nothing major.

"The car's looked quick. Just need to get some more laps under my belt and find my feet a bit more."

On headline times, Mercedes' George Russell was third fastest, from Haas driver Oliver Bearman, who said over the radio that he could not believe just how good the car was feeling.

Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto were fifth and sixth in Sauber's final race before they morph into Audi for the German manufacturer's debut season in F1.

Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar was seventh in his final race before his promotion to Red Bull in 2026, followed by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso and the second Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton was 14th.