Leclerc 10-place grid penalty in Abu Dhabi hits Ferrari title hopes

ABU DHABI: Ferrari´s Charles Leclerc was hit with a 10-place grid penalty on Friday for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, compromising the Italian team´s bid to capture the constructors´ title.

Ferrari are seeking to overturn a 21-point deficit to championship leaders McLaren in Sunday´s race, but they suffered a heavy setback when Leclerc was penalised for a new battery pack on his car.

Ferrari are bidding to win the team title for the first time since 2008 and McLaren since 1998. Leclerc had topped the practice times for Ferrari ahead of McLaren´s Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton, in his final race weekend with Mercedes, in Friday´s opening practice.

The Monegasque clocked a best lap in one minute and 24.321 seconds to outpace Norris by 0.221 at the Yas Marina Circuit with Hamilton adrift by four-tenths ahead of Mercedes team-mate George Russell and Alpine´s Pierre Gasly.

Nico Hulkenberg was sixth for Haas ahead of Williams´ Franco Colapinto, Haas´s Kevin Magnussen, Felipe Drugovich who was standing in for Lance Stroll at Aston Martin and Sergio Perez of Red Bull. Two-time champion Fernando Alonso declared he had “the worst car ever” after clocking the 11th best time in his Aston Martin.