All three drivers enter the season finale of the 2025 season with a chance to win the World Championship, setting up a grandstand finish for Sunday's Grand Prix as Norris leads the championship with 408 points, 12 points and 16 points clear of Verstappen and Piastri, respectively.

Norris pipped Verstappen to P1 in the first practice session at the Yas Marina Circuit by just eight milliseconds, but in FP2, the Brit laid down a marker by going three-tenths quicker than the Dutchman to show he is the man to beat after Friday's proceedings.

For Piastri, who missed FP1 to let rookie Pato O'Ward sit in, some balance issues caused trouble, resulting in a lock-up on his soft tyre lap, and he could only finish P11.

George Russell was able to round out the top three as Piastri missed out on the top ten, finishing P3 by going just +0.016 slower than Verstappen.

Ollie Bearman was outstanding in the Haas, consistently putting ten ten laptimes in to end up P4, while Sauber's fine Friday also continued with Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto taking P5 and P6, respectively.

Isack Hadjar took P7, while Ferrari's whimpering end to 2025 goes on, as Charles Leclerc could only take P8, while Lewis Hamilton was way down in P14.

Fernando Alonso and Kimi Antonelli rounded out the top ten.