Abu Dhabi GP: Leclerc tops FP1 but Ferrari suffers blow

Charles Leclerc topped Friday’s opening practice at Yas Marina despite a delayed start to his FP1 caused by a battery issue.

Unfortunately, adding a new energy store to the Monegasque’s inventory of hardware will mean a 10-place grid penalty for Leclerc on Sunday, a catastrophic setback for Ferrari’s championship ambitions.

McLaren’s Lando Norris clocked in second, 0.221s behind Leclerc while the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell ended the session third and fourth.

• Abu Dhabi GP Free Practice 1 - Results

As is often traditionally the case in Abu Dhabi, teams rounded off in FP1 their mandatory rookie obligations, the session enjoying the presence of six young drivers.

The roll call was the following: Ryo Hirakawa in place of Oscar Piastri at McLaren, Arthur Leclerc in place of Carlos Sainz atFerrari, Isack Hadjar in place of Max Verstappen at Red Bull, Felipe Drugovich in place of Lance Stroll at Aston Martin, and absolute beginners Ayumu Iwasa in place of Yuki Tsunoda at RB and Luke Browning in place of Alex Albon at Williams.

And as a reminder, rookie Jack Doohan has replaced Esteban Ocon at Alpine for the duration of the race weekend, the Aussie getting a head start on his 2025 debut season in F1.

Conditions were near perfect at the outset, with air temperature at 27.9C and track temp at 41.7C, and, unsurprisingly, a 0% chance of rain.

Championship contenders McLaren and Ferrari relied on their rookies – Hirakawa and Arthur Leclerc – for some preliminary aero test, with both drivers heading out with aero rakes fitted to their respective machines.

While Arthur immediately sprang into action, there was a bit of a worrying scene on Charles’ side of the Ferrari garage where the Monegasque’s SF-24 sat with its floor dismantled and the mechanics pouring over the engine bay.

Meanwhile, Russell established the early benchmark lap, while his Mercedes teammate, the departing Lewis Hamilton, was noted by the stewards for impeding Norris at Turn 16.

That didn’t prevent the McLaren charger from going top on his following flyer but Russell, fitted with a fresh set of mediums, promptly recouped the lead. This was short-lived however as Hamilton superseded his teammate by just 0.005s.

Halfway through the session, Charles Leclerc was finally seen preparing for action. A battery issue was revealed as the cause for his car’s delay, with the addition of a new energy store equating to a significant grid drop for the Scuderia driver on race day, and to sunken championship hopes for his team.

As the track ramped up, runs on the soft tyre kicked in, allowing everyone to up the pace. Norris lowered the benchmark to 1m24.542, with Hamilton in tow, 0.264s adrift, and Russell third.

Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc finally got down to work, the Scuderia driver accumulating laps on the medium tyre, his early efforts yielding a time good enough for P10. Pressing on as he attempted to make up for the delayed start, Leclerc popped to the top with a strong 1m24.321s on the soft rubber.

Over at Williams, while Franco Colapinto performed well, rookie Luke Browning was put on notice when he was shown the rare black and white warning flag after impeding fellow apprentice Hadjar for a second time.

There were no changes among the front-runners in the closing minutes of practice, with Leclerc therefore topping the session from Norris, Hamilton and Russell.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly followed thereafter, with Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg rounding off the top six with a solid effort.

Thereafter followed Colapinto, Kevin Magnussen who complemented his teammate’s top-ten performance, Felipe Drugovich, who outpaced his Aston teammate Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez who closed out the first half of the field.

Among the young guns, behind Drugovich, Hirakawa was P14, just ahead of Hadjar, while Iwasa was P17, with Arthur Leclerc 18th followed by Doohan and Browning.

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