ABU DHABI GP – George Russell fastest by two-tenths as several young drivers take to track in first practice
George Russell was fastest in the first practice session for the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver set a 26.076 going two-tenths faster than Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich. All of the teams were running rookies in one of their cars to full the regulations of two sessions during the season for drivers with less than two starts.
Daniel Ricciardo put his Alpha Tauri third going half a second behind Russell’s session topping time, the Australian was two hundredths faster than the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas. On a weekend when their long-serving boss Franz Tost will step back the team after seventeen years in charge. Drugovich’s teammate Lance Stroll was fifth, the regular Aston Martin driver was nearly three-tenths off the Brazilian.
Given that teams were all running rookies and this being a session held early afternoon and the race start being at sunset it makes reading the true performances unclear. The session gave no read whatsoever as to potential performance for this race, where several key championship positions are still contested.
Ferrari are just four points off Mercedes in their battle for second place in the constructors’ championship behind Red Bull. A battle worth about £10m difference in terms of prize money, also to secure a morale boost after difficult seasons. Ferrari has the momentum after a stronger second part of the season following a series of upgrades which have improved their difficult car.
Adding to the mix up results were Red Bull, the regulations meant that neither three-time champion Max Verstappen nor Sergio Perez were in the car, as well as Lewis Hamilton.
Oscar Piastri in the final race of his rookie season continued to show decent, pace in the McLaren, he was sixth going a tenth faster than Carlos Sainz. the Spaniard going nearly three hundredths faster than Ferrari reserve driver Robert Shwartzman. Pierre Gasly going a tenth faster than former teammate Yuki Tsunoda
One of the more dramatic moments of the session came halfway through the session, when there was a near collision between Alpine reserve Jack Doohan and Logan Sargeant.
As Sargeant prepared for his hot lap he was warming the tyres as Doohan came behind on his hot lap, the Australian had to suddenly jink right to avoid a collision. The incident is under investigation.
Doohan said he “almost had the biggest accident of my life” as Sargeant apologised for the incident, which will be investigated after the session. There were a few other scary moments at that part of the track due to a tailwind, which put several drivers all out of shape with Sainz, Stroll and Williams’ Zak O’Sullivan all having big slides.
Sargeant ended the session eleventh fastest going seven hundredths faster than Fred Vesti in Hamilton’s Mercedes. The Estonian going half a tenth faster than Dohan, Theo Pourchaire and McLaren IndyCar driver Patricio O’Ward. Both McLaren and Williams fulfilled the regulation when Piastri and Sargeant made their debut in Bahrain FP1.
Red Bull were sixteenth and seventeenth, with both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez sitting out FP1. Formula E champion Jake Dennis going three and a half hundredths faster than Frenchman Isack Hadjar, with O’Sullivan eighteenth.
Towards the end of the session Hadjar and Stroll had a moment at the end of the track’s first long straight, with the Red Bull junior having to jink around the Aston approaching the Turn Six/Seven chicane. The two Red Bulls were around a second off Russell’s session-topping time.
The two Haas’s rounded the field, Kevin Magnussen going a tenth faster than Ollie Bearman.