Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time of opening practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by just over a tenth of a second. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen was third, two hundredths of a second behind four-time champion Hamilton.
Brazilian Grand Prix winner Vettel set a best time of a 1:39.006 on Pirelli’s ultrasoft tyre compound to finish 0.120 seconds ahead of Hamilton on the same compound.
Hamilton headed the order in the early part of the session logging a time of 1:41.135s on the soft tyres, while team-mate Valtteri Bottas focused on supersoft running.
However, when Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen moved to the ultrasoft tyre he immediately vaulted to the top of the timesheet and then, with another hot lap, improved to 1:39.741.
The Finn’s time at he top was limited, however, as halfway through the 90-minute session the Mercedes drivers moved to the ultrasoft and, as a consequence, moved to the top of the order.
Verstappen then showed his hand, his ultrasoft run netting him a time of 1:39.154 that left him just 0.028s behind Hamilton. Vettel then bolted on the purple-banded tyres to edge both.
The dropped Verstappen to third, almost four tenths of a second clear of Räikkönen, while Bottas dropped to fifth. There was then a half a second gap back to sixth-placed Force India’s Sergio Perez. He was followed by Fernando Alonso. The McLaren driver failed to set a time in the first half of the session but when he did take to the track he immediately jumped into the top 10 using ultrasoft tyres.
Alonso ended the session 0.037s ahead of McLaren teammate Stoffel Vandoorne , with Felipe Massa, for whom this will be the final grand prix of his career, ahead of the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:39.006 | 23 |
02 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes AMG | 1:39.126 | 25 |
03 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Tag Heuer | 1:39.154 | 15 |
04 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:39.518 | 22 |
05 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes AMG | 1:39.741 | 30 |
06 | Sergio Perez | Force India Mercedes | 1:40.293 | 24 |
07 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren Honda | 1:40.522 | 20 |
08 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren Honda | 1:40.569 | 15 |
09 | Felipe Massa | Williams Mercedes | 1:40.723 | 27 |
10 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Tag Heuer | 1:40.773 | 29 |
11 | George Russell | Force India Mercedes | 1:41.131 | 26 |
12 | Romain Grosjean | Haas Ferrari | 1:41.306 | 24 |
13 | Lance Stroll | Williams Mercedes | 1:41.581 | 27 |
14 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso Renault | 1:41.646 | 29 |
15 | Carlos Sainz | Renault F1 | 1:41.748 | 23 |
16 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber Ferrari | 1:41.752 | 26 |
17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault F1 | 1:41.864 | 26 |
18 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Haas Ferrari | 1:42.065 | 21 |
19 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber Ferrari | 1:42.344 | 28 |
20 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso Renault | 1:42.585 | 35 |