Lewis Hamilton headed FP1 of F1 Abu Dhabi GP from George Russell, with Charles Leclerc ending up third amid rookies.

It was dry running in FP1 of F1 Abu Dhabi GP at Yas Marina circuit which went on smoothly apart from lots of sliding around for almost everyone on the grid. The Mercedes pair set the pace at the front with Lewis Hamilton on top with a 1m26.633s lap.

He headed George Russell (1m26.853s) with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (1m26.888s) in third from Red Bull pair of Sergio Perez (1m26.967s) and Liam Lawson (1m27.201s) – where the Kiwi replaced Max Verstappen. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel (1m27.268s) started his final weekend in sixth.

Ferrari’s Robert Shwartzman (1m27.429s) was seventh in place of Carlos Sainz, with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m27.619s) in eighth, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas (1m27.655s) ninth and Williams’ Alexander Albon (1m27.840s) 10th.

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was 11th with teammate Yuki Tsunoda 13th behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. There was a moment involving the AlphaTauri pair and Haas’ Pietro Fittipaldi which surprised the Frenchman during the session.

Alfa Romeo’s Robert Kubica was 14th in place of Zhou Guanyu, as Williams’ Logan Sargeant was 15th in place of Nicholas Latifi. The American added another superlicense point despite a Turn 1 spin after a lock-up. He escaped the barrier just to continue on.

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was 16th from Fittipaldi, who took Mick Schumacher’s car. McLaren’s Pato O’Ward had a scare on his session start but the team fixed Lando Norris’ car to send him out in 18th from Alpine’s Jack Doohan in Fernando Alonso’s car and Aston Martin’s Felipe Drugovich in Lance Stroll’s car.

Here’s drivers get together in Abu Dhabi

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR