The first free practice session of the Abu Dhabi GP has ended with Max Verstappen setting the fastest time, with 1:37.378. On the second place we had Valtteri Bottas with 1:37.412 and  Esteban Ocon on 3rd with 1:38.515 . The rest who completed the top 10 of the session were: Albon, Hamilton, Stroll, Perez, Kvyat, Gasly and Raikkonen on P10. 

Before the beginning of the racing weekend, we’ve received a confirmation via press release that Lewis Hamilton will in fact return behind the wheel of his W11 for the last race of the season, meaning George Russell will be back in Williams. Hamilton did several COVID-19 prior, testing negative, allowing him to come back for the last stint of 2020 in Abu Dhabi. It is the final race for the very unusual F1 season we had in 2020, put together during a global pandemic and still extending for 17 races, for which we should be very grateful to anybody who worked on getting it all together. 

This race will mean a couple of “lasts” - it will be the last race of Sebastian Vettel for Ferrari, before he moves to Aston Martin; last race for Carlos Sainz in McLaren, before he goes to Ferrari; last race for Daniel Ricciardo in Renault, before he goes to McLaren; last race for Kevin Magnussen in F1 before he goes to another racing category; possibly last race for Sergio Perez in F1, but definitely last in Racing Point; it would be also the last race for Romain Grosjean, but he is not participating due to the injuries from the crash in Bahrain. That means Sunday will definitely be an emotional day for many, both teams and fans, but before that, let’s recap on the FP1 at Yas Marina Circuit. 

The session began with clear sky above the track, with the air temperature of 25C and track temperature of 39C. During this session, the teams were mostly trying to test a little bit parts for next session. Additionally, the FP1 session is not really a representative session when it comes to pace, because of the conditions - the GP takes place in the evening, with artificial lights, but the free practice starts in the day light, with higher temperatures.

In the first minutes of the session we had most of the drivers go on at the track. For the FP1 we’ve got Kubica in Alfa Romeo, and Mick Schumacher in Haas. The first driver to first set a lap time was Albon, with 1:45.301. It was soon Leclerc who topped the leaderboard with 1:42.903, who then was pushed down by Bottas and his time of 1:40.692. In the early stages Hamilton reported a problem with his car, possibly issues with his brakes, which got investigated by his side of the garage almost immediately. With an hour and 10 minutes left, Daniel Ricciardo suffered an issue with his car and had to stop on the side of the track. Moments after Daniil Kvyat heard from his engineer to slow down, as his car was having problems too, but then was told to push. Ricciardo’s car caused a Virtual Safety Car, with a strange moment of green flag even though the car and the Marshalls were on track. 

With an hour before the end of the session, the first 10 were: Bottas, Raikkonen, Latifi, Gasly, Leclerc, Kvyat, Albon, Ocon, Vettel and Fittipaldi. At that time, all of the drivers already with the exception of Ricciardo had set a lap time. 

Hamilton so far has been stuck in the garage with his team working on the brakes, and in the meantime the Renault team confirmed Ricciardo’s car suffered a problem with the fuel pressure. 

With 40 minutes left on the clock Hamilton was able to get out of the garage and return back to the track. 

With half a hour left of the session, Verstappen set the fastest time with 1:37.378. Behind him in the top 10 were: Bottas, Ocon, Hamilton, Perez, Stroll, Gasly, Raikkonen, Sainz and Leclerc. 

Alex Albon had a spin but he was able to quickly recover from it and continue the session. 

10 minutes the top 10 shuffled only slightly, with Verstappen still on P1, followed by Bottas, Ocon, Albon, Hamilton, Stroll, Perez, Kvyat, Gasly and Raikkonen. 

Beside the momentarily virtual safety car, the session went very smooth, without any crashes or bigger issues. The FP2 will be a little bit more representative of the actual pace, as it will be later during the day and the conditions will be more close to the actual racing ones, as well as the teams will begin with their preparation for the actual weekend, instead of 2021. 

The final classification after FP1: 

FP1 FULL CLASSIFICATION@Max33Verstappen goes fastest in the weekend's opening session! ⏱#AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/8rdBheEZjF

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 11, 2020