Lewis Hamilton is anticipating a "super close" battle with Max Verstappen despite showing impressive one-lap speed in Abu Dhabi practice on Friday.

The seven-time world champion led by three-tenths under the lights at Yas Marina, with his championship rival six-tenths back in fourth after setting the pace in Practice 1 earlier in the day.

But despite his strong early performance, Hamilton wasn't taking anything for granted once back in the paddock.

“It was okay, it’s been a relatively decent day,” he told the media.

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“I like the changes they’ve made to the track; I think it’s made the track much more enjoyable, much more flowing.

“It’s obviously close between us all, but we got through our sessions. We’re still a bit unknown in terms of paces, but I’m sure it’s going to be super close like it has been in the previous races.”

The battle for the Formula 1 Drivers' Championship will be settled this weekend when the 2021 F1 season draws to a close with Sunday’s running of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

After looking at the list of sportsbooks that have been reviewed by Sports Betting Dime, we noticed that Lewis Hamilton has emerged as the -225 favourite in F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix odds.

What may worry Mercedes was the impressive long-run pace shown by both Verstappen on soft tyres and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez on mediums towards the end of the second session.

And it was that which had the Dutchman remaining somewhat optimistic.

“We’re still learning and understanding a few things. But of course, clearly, the short-run didn’t go to plan, lacking a bit of pace,” he said via Sky Sports.

“But I think the long runs were quite a bit more competitive, so that’s also important.”

Also speaking post-session, Red Bull boss Christian Horner highlighted the main concern around the revised Abu Dhabi track is the greater benefit of Mercedes' advantage on the straights.

“[Mercedes] look very competitive here, certainly in the first two sectors,” he noted. “I think [in] sector three, we come back at them, but I think the damage is done in the first two sectors.

“We’ve got plenty of data, we’ve got some areas of the car we need to tidy up overnight, so it’s going to be a long evening certainly here and back in Milton Keynes,” Horner added.

“I think the long-run pace looked pretty sensible; we’ve just got to tidy up the balance of the short runs.”