Hamilton ahead as Mercedes holds big advantage

By on
F1 Grand Prix, GP Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuitae

Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a trouble-free start to the Abu Dhabi GP weekend by ending the first practice session on top, little more than a tenth ahead of team mate Nico Rosberg. The duo confirmed their car's dominance as third fastest man Alonso was 1.7s slower on his fastest lap.

Sebastian Vettel led his Red Bull teammate in 4th and 5th, followed by both Toro Rosso's who again showed early promise. The team reported earlier this week they expected a lot from this weekend as they think their car is well suited for the circuit's characteristics.

Valterri Bottas was 8th fastest but managed only a limited amount of laps after a bodywork piece flew off his car, damaging fixings on his car that needed repairs before venturing out on track again. Felipe Massa has a similar issue with a part of the sidepod bodywork, allowing him to only run 7 laps.

Furthermore, there were technical issues for Jenson Button while his McLaren teammate Kevin Magnussen worked on evaluating different front wings.

At the back, Esteban Ocon debuted for Lotus while Adderly Fong got a first taste of the Sauber. Both were however faster than Will Stevens, the debutant for Caterham who will continue to race this weekend at Abu Dhabi.

Results

Pos.No.DriverTeamTimeGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:43.476-32
26Nico RosbergMercedes1:43.6090.13331
314Fernando AlonsoFerrari1:45.1841.70822
41Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing-Renault1:45.3341.85830
53Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing-Renault1:45.3611.88523
625Jean-Eric VergneStr-Renault1:45.7182.24217
726Daniil KvyatStr-Renault1:45.8352.35932
877Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1:45.9132.4378
911Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1:45.9832.50723
1027Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1:46.0302.55424
1120Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1:46.0492.57323
127Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:46.1312.65523
1319Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1:46.5493.0737
1421Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1:46.5563.08028
1513Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1:46.7113.23531
1631Esteban OconLotus-Renault1:47.0663.59029
1722Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1:47.2353.7598
1810Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1:47.9714.49524
1937Adderly FongSauber-Ferrari1:48.2694.79325
2046Will StevensCaterham-Renault1:50.6847.20814