FP1: Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg set the pace in Friday’s opening practice for the Abu Dhabi GP, a session in which Red Bull finished within half a second.

On a hot afternoon in Abu Dhabi, the championship rivals may have been the last to venture out of the pits but they were the first to make their marks on the timesheets.

Championship leader Rosberg grabbed the early P1 on the purple-marked ultrasoft Pirellis, a 1:43.243. That, despite being his second flying lap, was up on last year’s best time from FP1.

Hamilton took over with a 1:43.051 as both Mercedes drivers lapped on the ultrasofts.

Max Verstappen was third in the early running, 0.539s off the pace, with Daniel Ricciardo fourth. Both Red Bull drivers set their lap times on the soft tyres.

The Mercedes drivers swapped to the slower soft tyres for the second half of the 90-minute practice with Hamilton improving to a 1:42.869.

Rosberg was unable to find any added pace, finishing 0.374s down, while the same cannot be said of Verstappen. Putting on a fresh set of soft tyres, he closed the gap to Hamilton to 0.428s.

Ricciardo, who finished fourth, was a further 0.07s off the pace with Sebastian Vettel also running the softs as he finished P5.

Sergio Perez was sixth …

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