#AbuDhabiGP FP1: @LewisHamilton heads @MercedesAMGF1 one-two. #F1
Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport Formula One Team, F1 W13 E Performance, Free Practice 1, Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2022, Yas Marina Circuit, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Image credit to Bryn Lennon - Formula 1 via Getty Images. Hamilton Abu Dhabi FP1, 2022 Abu Dhabi FP1, Hamilton Abu Dhabi GP FP1, Abu Dhabi GP FP1.
Hamilton Abu Dhabi FP1 – Lewis Hamilton lead from team-mate George Russell in FP1 in a Mercedes one-two at the Abu Dhabi GP as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third.
Five days after the Silver Arrows broke it’s winless drought in 2022 with a victory at Interlagos, Mercedes once again rose to the head of the time-sheets during opening practice at the Yas Marina Circuit.
The early proceedings saw Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez and Leclerc – who are fighting for second place in the World Driver’s Championship standings this weekend – trade quickest lap times on the softer rubber.
Whilst the likes of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon and Alfa Romeo’ Valtteri Bottas momentarily held top spot on their soft tyre stints, it was Leclerc who pulled seven-hundredths of a second clear of Perez in P1 with 20 minutes left on the clock.
But the Silver Arrows gave the opportunity for Hamilton and Russell to bolt on a set of softs with 15 minutes remaining, allowing both drivers to shoot up the classification.
The seven-time world champion posted the benchmark of a 1:26.633 on the C5 red side-walled softer compounds and was 0.220 seconds quicker than team-mate Russell with Leclerc a further 0.255 adrift of the Briton in third.
Although it was a promising start for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi, both Qualifying and the Grand Prix will start three hours later than opening practice does, meaning conditions will be very different at dusk and into the night.
Leclerc and Perez were left to settle for third and fourth respectively, whilst Red Bull’s Liam Lawson finished as the top young driver in the session taking fifth in the order.
Lawson was one of seven drivers participating in FP1 as teams completed their rookie driver requirement for practice sessions this campaign, giving an opportunity to those with two Grand Prix appearances or less.
Lawson put in some solid efforts on the C3 white-marked harder tyres in the early stages before moving up to fifth on the softs late on, with the only issue being when he turned into his pit box and needed a push after narrowly overshooting the turn-in angle. Lawson told the Red Bull team over the radio he was used to driving further down the pit-lane.
Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel took sixth place in his final FP1 session of his Formula One career and before getting into his AMR22 racer, he was greeted by his father, Norbert, in the garage, and presented with his first racing gloves and race suit when he was a child.
Robert Shwartzman placed seventh for Ferrari in his second FP1 outing for the Maranello-marque, whilst McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was eighth as Bottas and Albon rounded out the top ten.
Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda ended opening practice in 11th and 13th respectively with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon splitting the pairing in 12th on the classification.
Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN reserve Robert Kubica in place of Zhou Guanyu and Williams Racing’s reserve Logan Sargeant (piloting the FW44 in place of Nicholas Latifi in FP1) placed 14th and 15th in the order.
Sargeant took another step towards achieving his FIA Super-Licence by racking up the 100km required and the American driver narrowly avoided ending his session early after suffering a spin at turn one, stopping just before the barrier then got going again.
Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen and reserve Pietro Fittipaldi (filling in for Mick Schumacher in FP1) were 16th and 17th respectively as McLaren IndyCar driver and reserve Pato O’Ward (filling in for Lando Norris) took 18th.
O’Ward reported an issue on his out-lap and was told to return to the pits in second gear at a slow pace.
The Woking based-outfit managed to fix the problem, allowing O’Ward to get back on track 20 minutes later and completed 22 tours of the Yas Marina Circuit.
BWT Alpine F1 Team reserve Jack Doohan (in place of Fernando Alonso in FP1) and Felipe Drugovich (in place of Lance Stroll) brought up the rear.
You can see the full Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2022 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1138/abu-dhabi/practice-1.html
@HulkHulkenberg replaces @SchumacherMick at @HaasF1Team for 2023. #F1
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