Hamilton tops FP1 despite spin, with Red Bull close

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Yas Marina Circuit

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of first practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix despite spinning early in the opening session.

The defending champion, who needs to overturn a 12-point deficit to team-mate Nico Rosberg in order to retain the title, set the pace with a 1:42.869 to end the session 0.374s clear of Rosberg. It wasn't a completely smooth morning for Hamilton, however, as he suffered a spin at Turn 6 on a track relatively low on grip.

While a podium finish would be enough for Rosberg to win the title on Sunday, his second place in FP1 came with the two Red Bull drivers within 0.120s. Max Verstappen was third quickest - just 0.054s slower than Rosberg - with Daniel Ricciardo 0.065s further adrift of his team-mate.

The best times for Hamilton and the Red Bulls came on the soft compound tyre, with Rosberg failing to improve on an ultrasoft lap he had set earlier in the session, while his team-mate managed to do so. However, track conditions are unrepresentative with track temperature up at 36C, with the race itself starting four hours later than FP1 commenced.

Sebastian Vettel was fifth fastest for Ferrari, some 1.1 off the pace on soft tyres, while Sergio Perez managed to split the Ferrari pair in the competitive Force India on supersofts. Perez was 0.4s clear of Kimi Raikkonen, with Carlos Sainz, Felipe Massa and Marcus Ericsson rounding out the top ten, albeit with the latter two over two seconds adrift of Hamilton's time.

Alfonso Celis Jr was driving in FP1 in place of Nico Hulkenberg, with the Mexican ending the session in 11th place having used the ultrasoft tyre, just ahead of Romain Grosjean. It was another difficult session for Grosjean despite running the Carbon Industry brake pads and discs he was happier with in Brazil, with the Haas driver spinning at Turn 1, losing the rear of his car as soon as he touched the brakes.

Daniil Kvyat suffered left rear puncture after 20 minutes of the session while running on soft tyres. Faced with a full lap with a deflated tyre, the Russian eventually parked his Toro Rosso at Turn 8 as the tyre started to fall apart, ending his session after just four laps.

Alongside Celis Jr, Jordan King was making an FP1 appearance as he replaced Esteban Ocon at Manor. King was slowest of all drivers except Kvyat, ending the session 1.1s adrift of team-mate Pascal Wehrlein. The GP2 driver also suffered a spin at Turn 5, swapping ends and taking out a bollard on the inside of Turn 6.

Jenson Button - on what he expects to be his final F1 race weekend - was sandwiched between the two Manor drivers in 20th position, the 2009 world champion managing just ten laps in the McLaren. Button was 0.7s and two positions behind team-mate Fernando Alonso as McLaren made a slow start to he weekend.

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:42.869	28
02	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:43.243	31
03	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:43.297	26
04	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:43.362	27
05	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:44.005	27
06	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:44.155	23
07	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:44.556	27
08	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:44.685	21
09	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:45.039	27
10	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:45.168	20
11	Alfonso Celis	Force India	1:45.476	26
12	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:45.600	13
13	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:45.778	17
14	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:45.925	20
15	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:45.940	31
16	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:46.219	33
17	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:46.372	21
18	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:46.379	21
19	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:46.458	29
20	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:47.127	10
21	Jordan King	Manor	1:47.558	27
22	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	2:01.989	4

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.