Yas Marina, FP1: Hamilton quickest in opening practice in Abu Dhabi

Lewis Hamilton edged Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to go quickest by a tenth of a second in the first practice session for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Hamilton posted his best time an hour into the 90-minute session, logging a lap of 1:43.754 to slot into P1 ahead of Rosberg whose best was 0.141 down on the champion elect.

Kimi Räikkönen was third quickest for Ferrari, though the Finn ended the session seven tenths of a second adrift of Hamilton’s time. Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat was fourth, almost a full second behind Hamilton, while fifth-placed Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari and Force India’s sixth-placed Nico Hulkenberg were the only other driver to get within a second of Hamilton’s benchmark.

Kvyat’s Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo finished in seventh place, ahead of Sergio Perez in the second Force India. Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado was the ninth quickest man and the top 10 order was completed by Williams’ Felipe Massa.

The session was incident-free but there was trouble for Lotus’ reserve Jolyon Palmer.

The Briton, who will race for the team in 2016, had been pencilled in for a full session in place of Romain Grosjean but with the team experiencing delays to its car build programme, Palmer was only able to take to track in the final 10 minutes of the session. He completed just eight laps for a best time of 1:46.501, more than two and half seconds off the P1 time.