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Formula 1
Abu Dhabi GP
2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Friday practice one
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A decent start for McLaren with the Red Bulls and Alonso chasing. Join us later for all the second practice action from Abu Dhabi.
Other notables: Massa was 11th in the second Ferrari, while Hulkenberg recovered to 12th position, following his heated seat issue.
Bottas produced another solid display in ninth position and Kimi Raikkonen rounds out the top 10 for Lotus.
Webber was demoted to fifth by the Spaniard at the end, with Schumacher sixth, Maldonado seventh and Rosberg in eighth spot.
Lewis Hamilton tops first practice at Yas Marina with a benchmark time of 1m43.285s, ahead of team-mate Button, Vettel and Alonso.
Drivers are being allowed to practice starts from a grid, with the usual launch rehearsal from pitlane not possible thanks to the tunnel.
Maldonado improves with his last lap of the session, moving up to seventh with a time of 1m45.115s.
Alonso clocks 1m44.466s to end the session in fourth fastest, a second slower than Hamilton.
Button makes a late improvement to 1m43.618s, closing to just over three tenths off Hamilton's benchmark.
89 min: The flag is out on first practice at Yas Marina.
89 min: Ma Qing Hua has improved with a lap of 1m50.487s, but that still leaves him 2.2 seconds down on team-mate de la Rosa.
89 min: Pacesetter Hamilton continues his long run with a heavy McLaren, getting in an early evaluation of race durability on the medium compound.
88 min: Button tops the middle sector but backs off at the end of the lap.
86 min: Raikkonen is also stuck in the garage at the end of this session with a right rear puncture on his allocated tyres.
84 min: Schumacher is back out for a final run. He remains in fifth place with a best time of 1m44.952s thus far.
84 min: Van der Garde remains in the Caterham garage with only three installation attempts on the board today after engine drama.
83 min: Button remains on a light fuel load with his McLaren as he finds more in his medium compound to clock 1m43.748s.
81 min: Vettel is back out there and explores the limits at Turn 17. He takes to the striped asphalt run-off area and rejoins without any issue.
80 min: Hamilton is told he should expect mid 1m45s times on his latest outing, which is clearly with a heavy fuel load onboard the McLaren.
78 min: But Rosberg backs off in the final section. He does elect to stay out there and starts another effort.
77 min: Laptime improvement is still being found on the single allocated set of medium compound tyres, indicating that degradation could be low here
77 min: Another lap for Rosberg and he is into seventh spot with 1m45.194s, and looking set to improve again on the following tour.
76 min: Rosberg has continued his gradual progress. He is up to ninth with a time of 1m45.361s. That is just under four-tenths down on team-mate Schumacher.
76 min: Hamilton and Button head out again, with McLaren setting the pace in this session so far.
74 min: Alonso pits his updated Ferrari, giving the team a chance to analyse the data collected on that run.
72 min: Hua wraps up his latest run with a two-second deficit to team-mate de la Rosa, with a best time of 1m50.800s.
72 min: Alonso clocks his best at 1m44.974s but remains in sixth, almost 1.7s off Hamilton's benchmark.
70 min: Raikkonen pits his Lotus as the Pirelli engineers examine his right rear tyre with concerns over a possible slow puncture.
70 min: Ma Qing Hua has spent much of the session gathering data so far, but now HRT has released him and he is gradually improving his pace.
68 min: Rosberg records a time of 1m45.610s and moves up to 11th spot.
67 min: Raikkonen improves his best to a 1m45.422s for eighth fastest.
67 min: Rosberg emerges after a lengthy period in the garage. He is into the first timed lap on this run.
66 min: Glock is testing flow-vis on the rear wing of his Marussia and has been debating track position with a resuming Schumacher.
66 min: Once he realised his error, Schumacher apologised, but the lap was lost for his fellow-German.
65 min: Schumacher continues round on a slow lap, getting in the way of Glock in the process. The Marussia driver is less than pleased.
64 min: Michael Schumacher moves back up the list to fifth spot with a lap of 1m44.952s. He is behind the two McLaren and two Red Bull drivers.
63 min: Another quick one from Hamilton as he tops all the sectors again for a new best of 1m43.285s.
61 min: Webber betters his time with 1m44.542s. He remains in fourth but just over one second down on the leading pace now.
60 min: Vettel comes round with an improved 1m44.050s. He remains third but now 0.601s down on the benchmark.
60 min: Button clocks 1m44.034s, closing to just over half a second off Hamilton's latest 1m43.449s benchmark.
By: Emlyn Hughes, Geoff Creighton
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