F1 Grand Prix practice results: Hamilton fastest in Abu Dhabi

His Red Bull title rival Max Verstappen was quickest in FP1, but Hamilton set the fastest time of the day in FP2 at 1m23.691s.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP1 results: Verstappen fastest from Bottas

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	23	1'25.009
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	27	1'25.205	0.196
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	25	1'25.355	0.346
4	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	24	1'25.363	0.354
5	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	23	1'25.378	0.369
6	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	26	1'25.625	0.616
7	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	28	1'25.822	0.813
8	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	20	1'25.846	0.837
9	Carlos Sainz Jr	Ferrari	26	1'25.886	0.877
10	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	26	1'26.007	0.998
11	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	25	1'26.025	1.016
12	Lando Norris	McLaren	26	1'26.123	1.114
13	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	25	1'26.189	1.180
14	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	25	1'26.409	1.400
15	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	26	1'26.608	1.599
16	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	29	1'26.676	1.667
17	Jack Aitken	Williams	27	1'27.481	2.472
18	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	27	1'27.487	2.478
19	Mick Schumacher	Haas	24	1'27.698	2.689
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	22	1'28.305	3.296
View full results

What happened in Free Practice 1?

First practice took place in daytime, meaning it was not fully representative of either qualifying or the race, both of which will occur in cooler conditions of the early evening.

Verstappen set the early pace on soft tyres at 1m26.463s before Hamilton topped it by a tenth and a half with 1m23.290s.

Verstappen stayed out and dipped under the 1m26s barrier with a 1m25.602s, while Hamilton got to within 0.218s in second. Verstappen then went even faster, producing 1m25.300s after 20 minutes of the session, with Hamilton working down to within a quarter of a second.

Hamilton ran again on new softs, improving to 1m25.355s – 0.055s off Verstappen at that point – but the Dutchman unleashed a 1m25.009s on his second run, which remained the quickest time of the session.

Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) improved to 1m25.205s to take second from Hamilton, who was 0.346s off Verstappen – but the Briton did set the fastest first and third sectors overall with a lap that was deleted for exceeding track limits.

Sergio Perez was just behind Hamilton in fourth, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri).

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP2 results: Hamilton fastest from Ocon

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	26	1'23.691
2	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	29	1'24.034	0.343
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	29	1'24.083	0.392
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	25	1'24.332	0.641
5	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	26	1'24.400	0.709
6	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	27	1'24.495	0.804
7	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	26	1'24.532	0.841
8	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	29	1'24.557	0.866
9	Carlos Sainz Jr	Ferrari	29	1'24.844	1.153
10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	27	1'24.940	1.249
11	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	26	1'24.959	1.268
12	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	27	1'25.108	1.417
13	Lando Norris	McLaren	27	1'25.153	1.462
14	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	27	1'25.195	1.504
15	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	26	1'25.385	1.694
16	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	23	1'25.440	1.749
17	George Russell	Williams	29	1'25.549	1.858
18	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	22	1'25.687	1.996
19	Mick Schumacher	Haas	27	1'25.784	2.093
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	26	1'26.336	2.645
View full results

What happened in Free Practice 2?

As the sun began to set at the start of FP2, Hamilton set the early medium-tyred pace at 1m25.127s. Verstappen almost matched his time, but had it deleted for track limits. The Red Bull driver ran again and was 0.122s off Hamilton’s pace, until his Mercedes rival reset the bar at 1m24.126s – putting him almost a second clear.

Bottas hit the Turn 14 wall with his right-rear wheel, while Nicholas Latifi damaged the rear wing of his Williams during a spin at Turn 13. Following his wall clip, and a stop to check for damage, Bottas ran again – this time on soft tyres – and set a new benchmark time of 1m24.083s.

Surprisingly, neither Hamilton (1m24.104s) nor Verstappen (1m24.332s) beat that on their first soft-tyred laps. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon then delivered an impressive 1m24.034s to top the session by 0.049s.

After multiple cool-down laps, Hamilton unleashed a lap of 1m23.691s – 0.641s clear of title rival Verstappen, who ended the session down in fourth behind Ocon and Bottas. Perez was fifth quickest, ahead of Alonso and Tsunoda.

Just as the chequered flag flew, Kimi Raikkonen shunted at Turn 14, damaging three corners of his Alfa Romeo in his final F1 weekend.