George Russell went fastest in opening practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in a session which saw Jack Doohan narrowly avoid “the biggest accident” of his life.
Doohan was one of 10 rookies in action, the Australian making his second Free Practice 1 appearance this season for Alpine.
Midway through the 60-minute session, the Australian narrowly avoided the slow-moving Logan Sargeant, diving to the inside on approach to the final corner as he attempted to avoid the Williams.
Had they made contact, with Doohan at full speed, the angle and speed of impact would have made for a significant accident.
The session had an odd look to it, with half of the 20-car field made up by ‘rookie’ drivers, including both Red Bull machines.
Felipe Drugovich was in action instead of Fernando Alonso, his Aston Martin sporting a significant aero rake as he left the pits for the first time.
Lance Stroll in the sister car was the first driver to record a lap, a 1:31.035s on a set of medium tyres.
It was not representative, of course, as the track was very green and basked in sunlight – all the meaningful sessions take place once the sun has set.
At McLaren, Pato O’Ward had replaced Lando Norris, the IndyCar race winner also having an aero rake to the back of his MCL60s.
At Red Bull, Jake Dennis complained of a loose helmet, forcing him back into the lane to have the strap tightened.
Ferrari sent its two drivers out, Carlos Sainz and Robert Shwartzman, on soft compound tyres.
That left the Spaniard second fastest in the early laps, 0.7s down on Russell who’d recorded the best time after 10 minutes – a 1:37.957s.
Despite his early pace, he’d subsequently lowered the benchmark to 1:26.963s, Russell was reporting understeer in his car.
As he did, Yuki Tsunoda sat second for Scuderia AlphaTauri and Sargeant third for Williams.
However, only 15 drivers had set a time, and not all were representative.
A quarter of the way through the session, Drugovich, Oscar Piastri, Valtteri Bottas, Theo Pourchaire, and Doohan had all been out of the pits but had not completed a lap.
When Piastri did head out for a timed lap, he did so with his front wing coated in flo vis paint, despite McLaren running an unchanged car this weekend.
Further down the lane, Scuderia AlphaTauri does have upgrades, with a new floor on the AT04 this weekend.
Early signs were positive, with Tsunoda second and Daniel Ricciardo third, the Faenza team was the only one to field both its regular drivers.
The pair were within 0.007s of one another after 25 minutes, though almost a second back from Russell’s best, which had moved to 1:26.313s.
Doohan’s programme involved a back-to-back front wing evaluation for Alpine, the Australian boxing for the change after seven laps.
Bottoming was proving a hot topic, with Pourchaire reporting instances through Turns 2 and 3 that he claimed almost caused him to lose the Alfa Romeo Sauber.
O’Ward was also experiencing issues at McLaren, with the team advising Piastri that it could see similar issues on the Australian’s car.
Halfway through the session, Doohan had a near miss as he rounded the penultimate corner at full speed.
A slow moving Logan Sargeant was meandering on the racing line, forcing the Alpine reserve driver to dive to the inside to avoid the Williams driver, who did likewise as the Alpine approached.
It prompted Doohan to report over the radio that he’d almost had “the biggest accident of my life,” while Sargeant apologised to his team, reporting he’d been told about the approaching Alpine too late.
Nonetheless, it caught the eye of the stewards, who quickly advised they would investigate the incident post-session.
Two-thirds of the way through the session, Russell remained fastest, though Pierre Gasly had moved into second with Fred Vesti third best for Mercedes.
Gaps remained large, and times to be taken with a grain of salt given the conditions.
Russell remained top as the session wound down, Drugovich rising to second fastest with Bottas third for Alfa Romeo Sauber. Ricciardo remained in a promising fourth for Scuderia AlphaTauri from Piastri.
The final minutes of the session saw most on soft tyres, and while that brought with it a smattering of improved microsectors, the order remained largely unchanged.
And so the opening 60-minutes ended with Russell fastest from Mercedes and Aston Martin reserve driver Drugovich second.
Ricciardo was third, managing to go 0.02s fastest that Bottas in the final minutes while Piastri fell to sixth, bumped by Lance Stroll, with the two Ferrari’s of Sainz and Shwartzman in seventh and eighth.
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