(Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)
Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team's championship leader Lewis Hamilton lead home team mate Nico Rosberg in the first practice session ahead of Sunday's final race of the 2014 season in Abu Dhabi. The 2008 world champion set a fastest time of 1m 43.476 ending the session just 0.133s ahead of Rosberg.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was best of the rest in third place albeit 1.708s behind the Mercedes duo. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel was fourth fastest for Infiniti Red Bull Racing ending the session just ahead of team mate Daniel Ricciardo who spent a considerable amount of time in the garage.
Toro Rosso's Jean Eric Vergne was 6th fastest just ahead of team mate Daniil Kvyat. The Williams Martini Racing Team's Valtteri Bottas was 8th fastest despite limited running for the Finn as a result of bodywork falling off his FW36.
The Sahara Force India F1 Team duo of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg finished the session by rounding out the top ten.
McLaren Mercedes Kevin Magnussen was 11th fastest while Kimi Raikkonen was 12th fastest for Ferrari despite coming over the radio towards the end of the session with a suspected issue. The Finn spent a bit of time in the garage as the team worked extremely hard at the back of the car. Felipe Massa was 13th fastest in the second Williams FW36 as he experienced the same bodywork issue as his team mate Valtteri Bottas so was forced to sit out most of the session.
Esteban Gutierrez was 14th fastest for the Sauber F1 Team in what is the start of the Mexican's final race weekend with the Swiss based outfit. Pastor Maldonado was 15th fastest for the Lotus F1 Team while Esteban Ocon ended the session just two tenths of a second behind Maldonado. Romain Grosjean will be back in the car for the second session.
Jenson Button endured a difficult session for McLaren as the 2009 world champion was forced to sit out the majority of the session due to an issue with his MP4-29 and ended the session in 17th place 3.759s behind Hamilton.
Kamui Kobayashi was 18th fastest as tge Caterham F1 Team made their return to the track for the first time since the Russian Grand Prix. The Japanese driver finished the session just ahead of the Sauber F1 Team's Adderly Fong who was in the C33 in place of Adrian Sutil who will be back in the car in Free Practice 2.
The Caterham F1 Team's Will Stevens rounded out the runners in 20th place. Williams Martini Racing's Head of Vehicle Performance Rob Smedley has confirmed that fix-ens used to attached the bodywork failed on both cars and speaking to Sky F1 he confirmed that the team will revert back to bodywork that they used at the last race in Brazil.
© Ben Johnston 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment