Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel fastest in first Abu Dhabi GP practice – F1

Sebastian Vettel beat Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton to the quickest time in first practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Ferrari driver Vettel clocked a 1m39.006s on the ultra-soft Pirelli tyres to end the 90-minute session 0.120 seconds clear of Hamilton at Yas Marina.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was only 0.028s further back in third place, with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen fourth, half a second off the ultimate pace.

Hamilton was the early pacesetter, clocking a 1m41.135s on the soft tyres, with team-mate Valtteri Bottas focusing on the super-soft tyres.

Raikkonen, whose Ferrari featured a Red Bull-style diffuser as part of the team’s experiments for 2018, then went quickest on the ultra-softs.

The Finn improved again to a 1m39.741s, but was then demoted as Hamilton and Bottas fitted the ultra-soft tyres just before the halfway mark.

Bottas was the first to cross the line, moving to the top of the pile with a 1m39.741s, but Hamilton beat that by an impressive 0.615s.

Though Verstappen’s first effort on the ultra-softs was just a fraction off Hamilton’s pace, both were bumped down when Vettel did his ultra-soft run.

Bottas ended the session fifth quickest, ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez, who was 1.287s off the pace.

Fernando Alonso didn’t set a laptime until the second half of the session, with the McLaren driver slotting straight into the top 10 on the ultra-soft tyres.

He ended up seventh, 1.516s off the pace and just 0.037s ahead of McLaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne in eighth.

Felipe Massa, contesting his final F1 grand prix weekend, was ninth for Williams with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top 10.

Mercedes protege George Russell borrowed Esteban Ocon’s Force India for first practice and ended up 11th fastest, eight tenths adrift of Perez.

Antonio Giovinazzi was the other non-race driver to take part in the session, running in place of Kevin Magnussen at Haas and going 18th quickest.

Renault’s Carlos Sainz Jr and Nico Hulkenberg were down in 15th and 17th respectively, but they did not run the ultra-soft tyre. Hulkenberg also had a quick spin out of Turn 14 at the end of the complex that follows the track’s second long straight.

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