Abu Dhabi, FP1: Bottas quickest in opening practice as Vettel crashes

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas went quickest in opening practice for Formula 1’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen by half a second. There was a trouble for Sebastian Vettel, however, with the Ferrari driver crashing out late in the session.

Bottas worked his way to the top of the order in the opening half of the session and 45 minutes in the Finn headed the table with a time of 1m36.957s set on medium tyres. The lap saw him sixth tenths clear of team-mate Hamilton. Verstappen then popped in a lap a tenth quicker than Hamilton’s to take P2 but the Dutchman was still 0.535s behind 2017 Abu Dhabi GP winner Bottas.

There was little time after that to improve as half an hour from the end of the session Daniel Ricciardo suffered an engine failure that led to a lengthy stoppage.

The Renault driver was nearing the end of a hot lap when smoke erupted from the rear of his car in the final corner. He immediately pulled over at the side of the track, but not before showering the closely following Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly in fluid.

With drivers forced to take an alternative line through the final corner the session was red flagged and the clean-up operation began. The stoppage lasted almost 15 minutes and the action resumed with a warning of the conditions still being slippery in the final sector.

It meant that there were no improvements in the final quarter of an hour, though there were more incidents.

Sebastian Vettel was down in the fifth place when the red flag period came to and pushing for an improvement in the final minutes he lost the rear of his Ferrari in Turn 19 and slide backwards into the wall. The crash again brought out the red flags and the session was halted for good.

Bottas therefore remained at the top of the order ahead of Verstappen and Hamilton. Fourth place went to Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Alex Albon with Vettel stuck in fifth. Haas’ Romain Grosjean claimed best of the rest status with sixth place ahead of the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, while Grosjean’s team-mate Kevin Magnussen took eighth place ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg.