Opening the final weekend of the 2025 season, Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda continued to fight drivability issues in Friday practice for the F1 Abu Dhabi GP. For the defending champion and dark horse contender Verstappen, though, this difficulty didn’t show on the timesheet. He put up the second-fastest time in both first and second practice, and was just .008 seconds from the top in FP1.
Verstappen: We “need to be a little bit faster” to win F1 Abu Dhabi GP
Trying for his fifth straight title, Verstappen went from 1:24.493 in FP1 down to 1:23.446 in FP2. “I was fairly happy with the car. We just need to be probably a little bit faster, I think, yeah. Still not quick enough, but I think overall we’ve been in, for us, I think we’ve been in a decent window around here.”
Unfortunately for Verstappen, the only driver ahead of him in both sessions was championship leader Lando Norris. “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 and, yeah, let’s see how much we can find overnight…. single lap and long run needs to be better.”
Tsunoda struggles: “I don’t know what’s going on”
While Verstappen characterized the car’s drivability issues as “a constant fight, but[…] nothing new”, the RB21’s difficulties seemed to overwhelm Tsunoda. In his last Red Bull race weekend, he came in 17th in FP2 with a lap of 1:24.303, nearly a second behind Verstappen.
“I didn’t expect to be like this challenging, to be honest, but it’s too far away. I don’t know what’s going on, to be honest, but yeah, I have to see why and what’s going on. But yeah, the gap seems one of the worst in the season. So let’s see.”
Tsunoda uncomfortable as Lindblad acclimates
“Didn’t feel much comfortable, let’s be honest, in the car. Yeah, I mean, I was, kept sliding around. So yeah, I have to find out why, what’s causing this issue. But yeah, it’s not really, it’s not really good.”
Tsunoda’s track time was limited as he ceded the Red Bull seat to Arvid Lindblad for first practice at the F1 Abu Dhabi GP. The incoming rookie at Racing Bulls put up the 15th best time at 1:25.256, fourth fastest among the nine rookie drivers in the session.
