Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Practice Recap

Round 24 of the 2025 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with Friday practice at the Yas Marina Circuit as teams prepared for Sunday’s season finale, the 58-lap Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Japan’s Ryō Hirakawa was present for his fourth and final FP1 appearance of the season with MoneyGram Haas F1 Team – Esteban Ocon sitting out the opening practice session in Abu Dhabi to enable Hirakawa, the team’s official reserve driver, to pilot the VF-25 after FP1 outings with the squad in Bahrain, Spain and Mexico. Hirakawa ran both the Pirelli P Zero White hard and Yellow medium compound tires during the 60-minute session. The 31-year-old posted a fastest time of 1:24.934 to finish in P11 at the checkered flag.

Bearman’s VF-25 was troubled with a sensor-related issue, curtailing the rookie’s run plan in FP1 when he was forced to retire back into the garage after a handful of runs. Despite this, Bearman had an opportunity to run the hard and medium rubber – with the rookie’s best lap of 1:24.759 good for P8 on the timesheets.

FP2 commenced at dusk under the lights with a local start time of 17:00. Bearman led the way and immediately was at pace around the 5.281-kilometer (3.281-mile), 16-turn circuit. Sampling the Red soft tires throughout the session, Bearman landed P4 thanks to a stellar 1:23.501 lap – set on his second set of rubber. Ocon placed P16 with a best lap of 1:23.958 – the Frenchman running exclusively on the softer tire as well. Both cars wrapped Friday with high-fuel runs through to the checkered flag.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team ran a total of 97 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 42 by Bearman, with 28 from Hirakawa and 27 from Ocon.

Ryō Hirakawa:

“That was my fourth FP1 session of the season and I’ve learned so much, so thank you to both MoneyGram Haas F1 Team and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing for the opportunity this year. I think it was a pretty decent session, and finally I got to drive around a track I’ve already tested on in a Formula 1 car. I was able to push from lap 1 knowing the layout, able to give comprehensive feedback, and follow a positive trend in lap time. We were the team that put mediums on for our fastest lap, so I think we’re really competitive. I think we have a lot to analyze now, but we’re looking good.”

Ollie Bearman:

“We had a good car underneath us in FP1, and I had a great feeling. On the first run I had a bit of understeer, but I could feel that the car wanted to go fast. In FP1, I didn’t get to do a lot of the session as we had a small issue, but I did one lap on the medium compound and we were really competitive, and that carried over to this afternoon. I think the key point is that it’s very tight out there, we were four-tenths away, but five-tenths can put you outside the top 10. It’s going to be important to optimize everything tomorrow.”

Esteban Ocon:

“It doesn’t seem to be working today – I can’t get the car to do one single lap. We’re half a second off every lap we do, so there’s a lot to look through. We can’t get the car to be how I’d like it to be.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“Ryō was back in the car for FP1, and I think he did a very good job, especially on the low-fuel runs. In the previous couple of outings, he wasn’t very happy with the brakes, but today he was. It goes to show, when you get that element right, that’s the performance he can provide. Ollie’s been happy with the car from the get-go, and looking at his lap time, he’s very confident. We have some fine-tuning to do, but that’s a strong place to start from. Esteban missed FP1 but was back in the car for FP2, and he’s struggling with the brakes and with entry stability, so we need to find a better compromise for him.”