Hamilton leads Mercedes resurgence in Practice 1

Lewis Hamilton has headed a one-two for Mercedes in the opening Formula 1 practice session at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Hamilton was 0.220s faster than team-mate George Russell with Charles Leclerc third at the end of the opening hour.

However, caution must be taken in reading too much into the results, as the session took part earlier than either qualifying or the race, meaning conditions were markedly different.

Also, Max Verstappen was absent as Red Bull fielded Liam Lawson for the session, the Kiwi driver putting in a good account of himself.

A problem for Pato O’Ward saw the McLaren substitute limping around in the opening minutes.

The Spaniard was instructed to keep the car in second gear and avoid shifting and return to the garage.

A mix of soft and medium compound tyres were in use, Sergio Perez on the former when he banked a 1:28.159s lap to go fastest in the early laps.

A total of seven young drivers were in use, plus Robert Kubica to make for eight regular drivers sidelines.

That included Fernando Alonso, who made way for Jack Doohan at Alpine, while Liam Lawson kept Max Verstappen’s seat warn.

A moment for Logan Sargeant saw the American lose the Williams under braking for the first corner, spinning into the run-off.

He was fortunate to do little more than destroy a set of tyres as he recovered to the pits.

Sargeant’s participation in the session was due to his need to gain FIA Super Licence points ahead of joining Williams as a race driver next season. As part of that, he needed 100 km of clear running.

Meanwhile, Williams’ other driver spent time at the top of the timesheets.

Alex Albon recorded a 1:17.840s to edge out Perez by 0.013s.

The Mexican soon went faster, improving to 1:26.967s as Albon fell to third behind Valtteri Bottas, who logged a 1:27.655s.

Inside the final five minutes of the session, Lewis Hamilton headed a Mercedes one-two, carrying on the form they showed in Brazil a week ago.

However, that must be taken with a grain of salt for now, as meaningful running happens once the sun drops.

With track temperatures over 45 degrees and ambient north of 34, conditions were therefore somewhat unrepresentative.

Nonetheless, it was a promising performance from the Mercedes pair.

It was an even stronger performance from Liam Lawson and Robert Shwartzman, the pair running in place of Verstappen and Carlos Sainz respectively.

Lawson was fifth fastest at the end of the session, just 0.568s away from the outright pace and 0.2s away from Perez.

Shwartzman was seventh best as the chequered flag fell, the second fastest of the ‘young drivers’, just 0.5s away from his team-mate, Charles Leclerc.

Results: Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Free Practice 1