Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two in first practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the seven-time champion set a 25.633 on the soft tyre which put him two tenths faster than his Mercedes teammate George Russell. The team go into the final round of the season having taken their first win last weekend in Sao Paulo.
The two Mercedes looked competitive with the session topping times coming towards the end of the session, but the caveat is that this being a twilight race making this session reprehensive given the warm conditions and the final race.
Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari third a quarter of a second behind Hamilton’s session-topping time and ahead of Sergio Perez by eight-hundredths of a second. Perez’s teammate Max Verstappen sat out FP1 giving his seat to Liam Lawson, the Australian going two-tenths behind his teammate.
Leclerc and Perez go into this weekend looking to decide second, tied on points and with internal friction at Red Bull and Ferrari the question is whether the teammates will help. Red Bull has the most noticeable internal row, Verstappen still refusing to say why he refused to follow team orders in Sao Paulo on Sunday.
his subsequent admission that he acted in that way bay because of “something that happened in the past”, has dominated the headlines in Abu Dhabi so far. multiple sources have said that he believes Perez crashed deliberately in the closing stages of Monaco Grand Prix qualifying.
Several teams used the session to fulfil their commitments to run young drivers. Lawson being the fastest going fifth, seven hundredths faster than Sebastian Vettel as the four-time champion goes into what could be his final race.
Lawson put in some impressive times on the hard compound tyre in the early part of the session before rising up to fifth on softs late on, with the only minor issue coming when he turned into his pit box and required a push after narrowly overshooting the turn-in angle.
Vettel separated two of the young drivers, the Aston Martin driver going over a tenth and a half faster than the Ferrari of Robert Shwartzman. The German celebrating his career and a photo call for all personnel on Saturday night post-qualifying. Vettel’s former teammate Daniel Ricciardo was eighth ahead of Valtteri Bottas with Alex Albon rounding out the top ten.
Pierre Gasly put his Alpha Tauri eleventh with his teammate Yuki Tsunoda thirteenth, they were spilt by Gasly’s teammate for next year Esteban Ocon. Ocon was just over four-hundredths of a second behind his fellow Frenchman, while Robert Kubica was fourteenth for Alfa Romeo.
Logan Sargeant took another step towards gaining his FIA superlicence by racking up the 100km required through the session for Williams finishing fifteenth. However, the American avoided an early exit when he spun at Turn One, stopping before the barriers.
The near miss meant Sargeant could go on to complete the 100km he needed to earn another point towards his licence, which he will attempt to finalise as he competes in F2 for the remainder of the weekend.
Kevin Magnussen was sixteenth six hundredths ahead of the teams reserve driver Pietro Fittipladi. However, the Brazilian faced criticism for Gasly after darting between the Alpha Tauris on the back straight.
McLaren IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward made his FP1 debut, however for the Mexican, his session started with an issue, before being told on his out lap to return to the pits in second gear at slow speed. But the team fixed the issue with him managing twenty-two laps on his way to eighteenth.
F2 race winners Jack Doohan and Felipe Drugovich rounded out the field, the Australian going nearly three-tenths faster than the Aston Martin.
