Who has the advantage after day one at F1's Abu Dhabi title-decider?

Lando Norris made a perfect start as he looks to win his first world championship at F1’s title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Briton’s Norris leads Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 12 points heading into the season finale and will clinch his maiden world title with a top-three finish on Sunday, regardless of where his rivals end up.

Norris’s bid to become McLaren’s first world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008 got off to the best possible start on Friday as he topped both practice sessions.

After just edging out Verstappen by 0.008 seconds in FP1, Norris pulled clear of the Dutchman by a comfortable 0.363s during second practice at Yas Marina with a 1m20.083 on soft tyres.

FP2 is the more representative of Friday’s two hour-long practice sessions in Abu Dhabi given it takes place at a similar time as both qualifying and the race.

Not only did Norris hold the advantage over a single lap, he was also the quickest driver in the long runs.

On the medium tyre, Norris set an eight-lap average of 29.270, compared to Verstappen’s 29.588 average over 14 laps on the same compound.

A direct comparison of the pair’s first eight laps would leave just 0.075s separating the championship frontrunners.

Verstappen conceded that Red Bull need to find more pace over both short and long runs.

“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 and let’s see how much we can find,” the four-time world champion conceded.

The other championship hopeful, Oscar Piastri, appears to be on the back foot.

Piastri, who needs to finish in the top two to have any chance of winning the title, missed first practice so McLaren could complete their mandatory rookie FP1 programme for 2025.

When he returned to the cockpit of his MCL39 in FP2, Piastri was not in the same ballpark as his rivals.

The Australian failed to set a representative soft tyre lap after suffering a big lock up at Turn 6, which left him out of sequence and down in 11th.

Piastri was also a couple of tenths behind Norris and Verstappen in the long runs.

On headline times, George Russell was the nearest rival to Norris and Verstappen as he finished third in both sessions.

The Mercedes driver could end up playing an intriguing factor in the three-way title showdown, assuming his early competitiveness translates into the rest of the weekend.

Is single lap or race pace more important?

The big dilemma facing the teams heading into qualifying is how best to set-up their cars to find a compromise between single lap and race pace.

It is no good simply having the fastest car over a single lap and taking pole position if your car is not competitive over the 58-lap race distance.

A trade-off must be struck, but this year has also proved that track position is ultimately king with overtaking harder than ever as the field has converged.

Asked what he thinks Verstappen will prioritise out of the two, Sky Sports F1 pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz said: “Single lap.

“If they have the idea that a McLaren will be on pole, do they [Red Bull] do their normal trick of hoping that they are somewhere at the beginning, front row would be great, then maybe start on a different tyre and get into the lead.

“Second or third is useless for Max. He needs to win, like Oscar, he needs to win. Surely the best chance of that is to be at the front at the start.”

But Anthony Davidson argued: “We spoke to Laurent Mekies [Red Bull team principal] and asked him exactly that question on the pit wall and he said they were going to focus on race pace.

“I think you can wrestle round a car here that’s got inherently good race pace, but not so in qualifying. There’s no point being at the sharp end at the start of the race if your tyres are to degrade. Lando or Oscar would just walk off into the distance.

“If this is a normal, straightforward qualifying and race, Lando has got this in the bag. He’s got the speed, he’s got the car to do it, he’s 12 points in the lead.

“The guys who aren’t in the lead of the championship need a bit of unpredictability, they need something to go wrong and then that’s the moment that Red Bull, or Max, or Oscar, they can pounce.”

There’s still a long way to go, but Norris has certainly laid down an early marker in Abu Dhabi and looks to hold the advantage.