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Norris staying hungry for more in Abu Dhabi while his pursuers are staying hopeful

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Lando Norris says he’s still hunting more performance from his McLaren despite setting the pace in both Friday practice sessions for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as his title rivals target closing the gap.

In FP1, Norris edged out Max Verstappen by just 0.008s, while Oscar Piastri sat out the session for P ato O’Ward to complete another mandatory outing. The second practice session saw Norris extend his advantage to over 0.3s, but despite that margin the championship leader is not completely satisfied with his day’s work.

“Obviously, from the times and everything, things are good… but still want a bit more from the car,” Norris said. Not completely happy, not completely confident – we’re a bit in the middle of trying some different things and trying to understand some things with the car.

“So hopefully [there is] some more stuff we can get out of it overnight, but it’s not been a bad day for sure. It’s been a positive day, but we always know it gets a lot closer going into qualifying, so nothing to smile about just yet.”

Norris doesn’t believe the extra practice session compared to Piastri gives him any slight advantage this weekend, and his teammate also was not concerned to be 0.6s off given his lack of FP1 running.

“I think I got there pretty well on the medium [tire], just on the soft I didn’t get the most out of the grip on that first timed lap,” Piastri said. “So finding my feet, I think. Clearly some things to try and improve for tomorrow, but I think after just one session, not too bad.

“I think it’s more just little details. The car feels like it’s in a pretty decent place. Again, just didn’t get the grip out of it in that first soft lap. So some small tweaks… Of course, it didn’t feel perfect out there, but nothing major.”

With another practice session to come on Saturday, Piastri – who needs to ovecome a 16-point deficit to become world champion – is confident of his chances come qualifying.

“I think pretty good [chance of chasing pole position]. I think the cars looked quick. Just need to get some more laps under my belt and find my feet a bit more, really, that’s all,” he said. “So yeah, a few more laps tomorrow, a few more sets of tires, hopefully we’ll be there.”

Verstappen was reasonably happy with his Red Bull in both the day and evening conditions, but knows he and the team will need to make progress to battle the McLarens on pace. Guido De Bortoli/Getty Images

Verstappen needs to close a 12-point deficit and was second to Norris in both sessions, but the Dutchman feels his Red Bull is handling well, just lacking pace.

“Pretty OK [two sessions],” Verstappen said. “I was fairly happy with the car. We just need to be probably a little bit faster. I think still not quick enough. But I think overall, for us, we’ve been in a decent window around here.

“It seems like it’s a decent gap that we need to close, but from our side, we’ll just try to put the best car forward. Let’s see how much we can find overnight … Single-lap and long-run [pace] needs to be better.”