» Hamilton tops first practice

Lewis Hamilton has finished the first practice session in Abu Dhabi ahead of championship rival and team-mate Nico Rosberg.

The Mercedes duo was a staggering 1.7 seconds ahead of next best finisher, Fernando Alonso in third. Despite being a contender to the Mercedes outfit, Williams had a dreadful start to the weekend as both Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas experienced some of their bodywork detaching from their cars; the duo only ran seven and eight laps in the session respectively.

Red Bull Racing ended practice high up the order with Sebastian Vettel in fourth and Daniel Ricciardo a fraction behind in fifth position. The pair were closely followed by both drivers from Red Bull’s sister team, Scuderia Toro Rosso. Just over one-tenth of a second separated Jean-Éric Vergne in sixth and Daniil Kvyat in seventh.

Jenson Button only managed to complete eight laps after his McLaren encountered a mechanical problem. His team-mate Kevin Magnussen finished just outside the top-ten.

Will Stevens made his Formula 1 debut for Caterham, however his session stalled early on as he had mechanical issues after his installation lap. The team finally resolved the issue with 15 minutes left to run which allowed Stevens to complete a total of 14 laps.

2014 Formula 3 champion Esteban Ocon stepped in for Romain Grosjean during FP1 and made a strong impression on the team. Completing two laps less than Pastor Maldonado in the other Lotus, the 18-year-old finished the session three-tenths of a second off the Venezuelan’s best time. Ocon will drive for the team in next week’s season-ending test session.

The other new driver to make an appearance in FP1 was GP3 driver Adderly Fong, who stood in for Adrian Sutil in the Sauber. Fong didn’t fare as well as Ocon, finishing the session second-slowest and over 1.5 seconds off Esteban Gutiérrez in the other Sauber.

2014 Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 1 Results:

	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:43.476		32
2.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:43.609	+ 0.133	31
3.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:45.184	+ 1.708	22
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:45.334	+ 1.858	30
5.	Daniel Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:45.361	+ 1.885	23
6.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:45.718	+ 2.242	17
7.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:45.835	+ 2.359	32
8.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:45.913	+ 2.437	8
9.	Sergio Pérez	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:45.983	+ 2.507	23
10.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:46.030	+ 2.554	24
11.	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:46.049	+ 2.573	23
12.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:46.131	+ 2.655	23
13.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:46.549	+ 3.073	7
14.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:46.556	+ 3.080	28
15.	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:46.711	+ 3.235	31
16.	Esteban Ocon	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:47.066	+ 3.590	29
17.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:47.235	+ 3.759	8
18.	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:47.971	+ 4.495	24
19.	Adderly Fong	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:48.269	+ 4.793	25
20.	Will Stevens	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:50.684	+ 7.208	14