Lando Norris led a McLaren one-two in second practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as a grid penalty for Charles Leclerc left Ferrari needing an "amazing recovery" to contend for the Constructors' Championship at the season finale.
McLaren had already been handed a major boost earlier on Friday during first practice when Ferrari, who are trying to overturn a 21-point deficit in Sunday's race, suffered a huge blow as Leclerc incurred a 10-place grid penalty for taking a new battery.
Their prospects of winning the constructors' title for the first time since 1998 were boosted further in Friday evening's crucial session, in which conditions are most similar to those for qualifying and the race, when Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri led the way.
Norris set a time of 1:23.517s to finish more than two tenths of a second clear of Piastri, while the pair also exhibited strong pace on their longer race simulation runs.
Nico Hulkenberg was a further couple of tenths back in a surprising third for Haas ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, while Leclerc could only manage sixth.
Lewis Hamilton, who is driving for Mercedes for the final time before ending a 12-season run with the team to join Ferrari next year, was fifth.
George Russell and Max Verstappen - the two drivers who have been the centre of attention in Abu Dhabi due to their extraordinary feud - both struggled.
Mercedes' Russell could only manage 13th after making an error on his soft-tyre run, while world champion Verstappen was unhappy with the handling of his Red Bull as he finished 17th.
Verstappen, Sainz and Piastri were three of six drivers who sat out first practice to allow their teams to complete their obligated quota of young driver sessions for the season.
Amid reports Red Bull have decided to replace him at the end of the season, Sergio Perez was 14th, with leading contenders to replace him, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson, 10th and 11th for the squad's sister team RB.
Norris: McLaren pace looks better than it is
With Norris' Drivers' Championship hopes having been ended by Verstappen in Las Vegas last month with two rounds to spare, the Brit's focus has switched to helping his team end a 26-year wait to claim the teams' title
A feature of McLaren's impressive campaign has been their ability to quickly dial the MCL38 in on a Friday, and this occasion was no different.
Norris insisted the timesheet made McLaren's display look "better than it is", suggesting their long-run pace still needed improving.
"It was a good day. The car's been feeling good the whole day, continued our pace from Qatar," Norris said.
"It feels strong and we still have some things to improve on both on low and high fuel, probably more the high fuel.
"It looks better than it is. I don't think the others have turned up their engine yet. It might look glorious now but I think but I still think we are still will have a tough fight."
Leclerc eyes 'amazing recovery' after emotional Friday
All eyes were on the Ferrari garage ahead of first practice due to the fact Leclerc's team-mate for the session was his younger brother Arthur, with the pair becoming the first siblings to represent the same team in an F1 session.
However, the feel-good story of the day quickly took a turn for the worse as the elder Leclerc was unable to get out on the track in the early stages due to a technical issue, which required a new energy store to overcome it.
The Leclerc brothers were eventually able to unite on track, but with the team knowing their hopes of overturning McLaren's advantage have become even slimmer than they were at the start of the event.
Charles Leclerc was able to go top first practice, but McLaren's dominance in the later - more representative - session only adds to the feeling that the title is slipping away from them.
"It makes our weekend more difficult," he said. "It all started unfortunately last night when I got food-poisoned and couldn't sleep all the night. I'm so tired, I just want to sleep now, so it wasn't so easy.
"This morning I didn't feel like I wanted to drive but obviously the huge motivation of the day was doing the FP1 with my younger brother. This is a dream that came true today for both of us, for all of our family that travelled all the way from Monaco to see that, and it was a very emotional moment. I definitely had to put the helmet on very early because I also was emotional.
"And then that's where everything started to go wrong, unfortunately, because as soon as we fired up the car we saw that there was a problem with the energy storage. There were lots of things going through my head. First, am I going to drive this FP1 with my brother, which is a unique opportunity? And obviously, also the championship. That makes our weekend a lot more difficult.
"But that doesn't demotivate me at all. I feel a little bit better tonight already. I'll have a good night's sleep and I'll come back tomorrow with my battery fully recharged. And hopefully we'll have a great day tomorrow and then have an amazing recovery on Sunday."
Sky Sports F1's live Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Saturday December 7
8.10am: F1 Academy Race One
10.15am: Abu Dhabi GP Practice Three (session starts at 10.30am)
12.10pm: F2 Sprint Race
1.15pm: Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying build-up
2pm: ABU DHABI GP QUALIFYING*
4pm: F1 Academy: Race Two
5pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Sunday December 8
7.10am: F1 Academy Race Three
9.20am: F2 Feature Race
11.30am: Grand Prix Sunday: Abu Dhabi GP build-up
1pm: The ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX
3pm: Chequered Flag: Abu Dhabi GP reaction
4pm: Ted's Notebook
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event
Watch the final race of the 2024 Formula 1 season - the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - live on Sky Sports F1, with Sunday's race at 1pm. Get Sky Sports F1 or stream with NOW
