Abu Dhabi Test, Day 2 3pm: Norris undermines Russell

The Abu Dhabi Tests, the final chapter of the 2021 season, have entered the final part. At midday, Lando Norris jumped to the top of the hitting table with a 1’25” 809, earned from 18 inches of Pirelli rubber in his C5 compound, currently six-tenths ahead of George Russell (Mercedes).

Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri AT01

Photography: Zach Moger / motorsports pictures

Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo Racing

Photography: Mark Sutton / motorsports pictures

As with yesterday, work schedules are confirmed to be quite intense, with a lengthy race simulation seeing all the teams take part in the mule cars. The midday marathon is Pierre Galsey (AlphaTauri), 109 laps, ahead of Guanyu Zhou, (Alfa Romeo) committed to using every kilometer to get to know the Hinwil team as much as possible.

Carlos Sainz is expanding his work program, which will lead him to cover more than a hundred laps. Robert Schwartzman also drove a significant distance on the wheel of Haas (the only one on the 2021 single-seat circuit) to hit the times he did yesterday on the SF21 wheel.

The Russian confirms at Ferrari’s driver’s academy good progress, and with two strokes of six hours of testing (out of nine total) he finished fourth on the times table. The red flags haven’t cut through the long afternoons in the past three hours

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB15 Mule

Photography: Zach Moger / motorsports pictures

Here’s the schedule at 3pm