GP Abu Dhabi, Free Practice 1: Hamilton ahead of everyone

Best time for Lewis Hamilton in the first free practice session of the Abu Dhabi GP. The Englishman from McLaren lapped in 1.43.285 with 25 minutes to go and beat his teammate, Jenson Button, by 333 thousandths. Third time for the world championship leader, Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), ahead of his rival Fernando Alonso, fourth with Ferrari.

The session had a slow start with few cars on track until the first 35 minutes and track temperatures above 45 degrees.

Jean-Eric Vergne set the landmark first time before Valtteri Bottas, Michael Schumacher and Alonso took turns in the lead.

Towards the end of the first hour Vettel moved ahead of everyone but Hamilton did better. From there no one would have been able to beat the Englishman.

Button improved his time towards the end of the session while Hamilton worked with different fuel loads in the final half hour.

Vettel finished third fastest despite running wide at turn 16 after hitting the curb at the entrance to the corner.

Alonso, having slipped to sixth place, then set his best time in the final moments of the session to jump to fourth place, ahead of Mark Webber's Red Bull and Schumacher's Mercedes.

Followed by Pastor Maldonado (Williams), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Bottas (Williams) and Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus).

Scary for Sergio Perez who, 12 minutes from the end, at the entrance to the pits lost control of his Sauber and risked ending up in the barriers.

F1 GP Abu Dhabi – Times and Results Free Practice 1

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m43.285 20 2. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m43.618s + 0.333 18 3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m44.050s + 0.765 21 4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m44.366. 1.081s + 20 5 1. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 44.542m1.257s + 21 6 1. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 44.694m1.409s + 21 7 1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 45.194m1.909s + 19 8 1. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 45.347m2.062 s + 24 9 1. Valtteri Botta Williams-Renault 45.347m2.062s + 23 10 1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 45.422m2.137s + 15 11 1. Felipe Massa Ferrari 45.567m2.282s + 23 12 1. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 45.587 m2.302. 18s + 13 1 45.722. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 2.437m19s + 14 1 45.743. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 2.458m19s + 15 1 45.769. Jules Bianchi Force India-Mercedes 2.484m21s + 16 1 45.811 Sergio Perez Sauber- Ferrari 2.526m21s + 17 1 46.649. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 3.364m22s + 18 1 46.708. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 3.423m24s + 19 1 47.418. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 4.133m22s + 20 1 47.891. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 4.606m19s + 21 1 48.354. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 5.069m21s + 22 1 48.887. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 5.602m21s + 23 1 50.487. Ma Qing Hua HRT-Cosworth 7.202m20 .24s + 3 XNUMX XNUMX. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault no time XNUMX