Abu Dhabi GP: Lewis Hamilton fastest in first practice session

The Mercedes driver set a laptime 0.133 seconds quicker than his team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Once again the two title protagonists dominated the top of the timesheets, with a 1.7-second margin over Fernando Alonso's Ferrari in third.

The two Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo were next up in fourth and fifth places respectively.

The Toro Rossos set the sixth and seventh quickest times with Jean-Eric Vergne lapping a tenth ahead of his team-mate Daniil Kvyat.

Valtteri Bottas was eighth, but just half an hour into the session he suffered an alarming moment when the engine bodywork was ripped off the right-hand side of his Williams at high speed.

His Williams team-mate Felipe Massa was also forced to pit with a similar problem and the team elected not to run again in the session. Massa was 13th.

Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10 in their Force Indias ahead of Kevin Magnussen's McLaren and the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

Another driver near the bottom of the timesheets was Jenson Button. He suffered a problem with his McLaren and could only manage eight laps in total, leaving him 17th.

Lotus was forced to replace one of its front wings after it was damaged by hitting a bird on track.

Briton Will Stevens was last on the timesheets in his first ever F1 session for Caterham.

His running was curtailed after just a single installation lap due to a suspected problem with his Renault power unit.

After a long fix, Stevens was able to resume the session with just over 10 minutes remaining.

Two other drivers made their practice debuts on Friday lunchtime at the Yas Marina circuit.

Formula 3 European champion Esteban Ocon stepped into Romain Grosjean's Lotus, while GP3 and sportscar racer Adderly Fong took over Adrian Sutil's Sauber.