Ferrari and McLaren locked in dogfight with four-time champion Verstappen miles off

Charles Leclerc drew first blood in Ferrari's battle with McLaren for this season's F1 constructors' championship.

With the drivers' championship wrapped up on Saturday in Las Vegas, with Max Verstappen clinching his fourth consecutive crown, the focus has now switched to the fight for the team title.

McLaren head into the final two grands prix in Qatar and Abu Dhabi separated by just 24 points. Although Leclerc finished top of the timesheet at the end of the single practice session, McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were second and third fastest, followed by Carlos Sainz in his Ferrari.

A second push lap at the death from Leclerc saw him post the leading time of 1:21.953s, with Norris and Piastri 0.425s and 0.472 secs respectively, off the pace. Piastri won last year's sprint at this track from pole position.

As for Verstappen, the Red Bull driver was a lowly 11th quickest, 1.260s down at the end of what was a very unpredictable session.

With only an hour of practice to prepare ahead of the final sprint weekend of the longest season, around the dusty, little-used Lusail International Circuit, running was often chaotic.

There was no time wasted by any driver to build knowledge and understanding of the track ahead of sprint qualifying later in the day. On occasion, drivers were weaving in and out of traffic to bank their laps.

What was also perhaps unexpected were the conditions. Last year's race was run in extreme heat, leading to a change in date for this year's event.

Remarkably, though, the air temperature was a cool 20 degrees, with the feel chillier given the wind. The session began with the sun setting and ended under the lights.

With 30 minutes remaining, Leclerc was out in front with a lap of 1:23.702s, and on the hard tyre, compared to Verstappen, Norris and Alpine's Pierre Gasly behind him on the mediums.

Verstappen was 0.183s adrift at that stage, with Gasly a further 0.039s adrift and Norris over a tenth of a second further back.

Leclerc improved to 1:23.419s soon after, continuing his running on the white-striped Pirellis, with team-mate Sainz moving to within 0.119s, with the Scuderia duo and Williams pair of Alex Albon and Franco Colaptino the only drivers on the hard compound.

As track evolution took hold, and with tyre degradation low, Sainz then lowered the benchmark to 1:23.068s, with Leclerc 0.351s off the pace, and Norris almost seven-tenths back.

Having done no running on the mediums, Colapinto was the first to venture out on the softs, and from his 19th position on the timesheet, the young Argentine failed to improve due to him running wide onto the gravel in the middle sector.

Team-mate Albon, though, moved up to third, 0.397s behind Sainz, on his soft rubber.

In the closing minutes, the softs naturally became the tyre of choice, resulting in Leclerc posting a time of 1:22.242s. Sainz, in contrast, failed to hook up his car over the lap and finished 0.740s down.

Norris and Piastri, however, forced themselves back into contention to move to within two-tenths of a second.

Leclerc's second push lap, though, elevated him comfortably clear of Norris.

Behind fourth-fastest Sainz, there was a half-a-second gap to RB's Yuki Tsunoda in fifth, followed by Stake's Valtteri Bottas and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll, underlining the bizarre running of the session.

Mercedes' George Russell and Lewis Hamilton then sandwiched Albon to complete the top 10, with Verstappen 11th. Team-mate Sergio Perez was a miserable 18th.