F1: Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in opening practice in Abu Dhabi

Picking up where they left off in Brazil the Mercedes team ran 1-2 in opening practice for the Abu Dhabi GP with Lewis Hamilton beating George Russell by 0.220s with a lap time of 1m26.633s.

The Mercedes team kept developing their 2022 car while all the other teams stopped many races ago to focus on their 2023 car, and the results are showing.

Charles Leclerc was 3rd for Ferrari, 0.255s behind Hamilton while the man he is tied for 2nd place in points, Sergio Perez, was 4th, 0.334s off the pace in his Red Bull Honda.

Young driver Liam Lawson was 5th driving in place of Max Verstappen in the 2nd Red Bull Honda, 0.568s behind.

Sebastian Vettel, in his final F1 race, was 6th for Aston Martin, 0.635s back.

American Logan Sargeant was a respectable 15th in the Williams, 1.465s back, despite a spin in Turn 1 where he avoided the barriers. The F2 driver, who is trying to win the 2nd Williams seat this weekend if he does well in the F2 race, was just 0.2s behind Alex Albon in the other Williams. Given his inexperience Sargeant has shown he is well-qualified to be an F1 driver next year.

IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward was 18th for McLaren, 1.717s back and well behind Daniel Ricciardo in the other McLaren who was 8th, underscoring why he is an IndyCar driver and not an F1 driver.

Every rookie on track completed at least 22 laps so that’s an extra point on their Super Licenses.

Sainz, Latifi, Norris, Verstappen, Zhou, Schumacher, Stroll and Alonso will return for FP2, which will take place in cooler conditions as the sun goes down in Abu Dhabi.

Practice 1 Results