Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was fastest to start F1 Abu Dhabi GP weekend in FP1 from Mercedes pair of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton.

The altered Yas Marina circuit saw the lap trim nicely down from last year as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (1m25.009s) led the way from the Mercedes pair in F1 Abu Dhabi GP FP1 session where Valtteri Bottas (1m25.205s) was ahead of Lewis Hamilton (1m25.355s).

It wasn’t very clean run from all the three though with Verstappen complaining of tilted steering wheel and understeer, while Bottas and Hamilton did have some minor off moments where the latter had his lap time deleted too for track limits.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez (1m255.363s) in fourth made it all four of the Top 2 teams with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m25.378s) in fifth with teammate Pierre Gasly (1m25.822s) seventh behind Alpine’s Fernando Alonso (1m25.625s).

Both the Alpine cars had ‘El Plan’ on its rear wing, with Alonso’s teammate Esteban Ocon in 11th after facing some troubles during the session. He was behind the Ferrari pair and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel (1m26.007s) in the Top 10.

Charles Leclerc (1m25.846s) – with the visor camera – was ahead of Carlos Sainz (1m25.886s) in eighth and ninth. The Monegasque had a run-in with Verstappen in the hotel section, as the Spaniard alerted of some changes after troubles in the car.

Sainz also had an off along with a moment with Vettel. The German had a separate half spin on the run-off towards the end of the session but managed a Top 10 run. With Ocon in 11th, McLaren’s Lando Norris was 12th after his moments during the session.

The Alfa Romeo pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi were 13th and 14th with the Finn having a spin too. They led Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in 15th with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo 16th after the Australian used the medium tyres for his fast lap.

The Williams pair of Jack Aiten and Nicholas Latifi in 17th and 18th where the British-Korean driver replaced George Russell, as Haas pair of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin rounding out the 20 runners in a cautious run.

Among host of drivers using a special helmet for the Abu Dhabi GP weekend, Vettel once again stole the show with the messages inscribed on it.

Here’s what Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton said ahead of GP and others too

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