Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull covered by a tenth in first practice

2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix first practice

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Sebastian Vettel headed the times in a close first practice session at Yas Marina.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix practice in pictures
With track temperatures reaching 43C, considerably higher than are expected for Sunday’s race, Vettel set a quickest time which was just two-tenths of a second slower than last year’s pole position time. The Ferrari driver lapped the track almost four seconds quicker than anyone did in the same session last year.

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were close behind, the trio covered by just 0.148 seconds and all setting their quickest times on the ultra-soft tyres.

Fourth-quickest Kimi Raikkonen began the session with a large aerodynamic rig attached to his Ferrari. Valtteri Bottas was fifth but Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull was only tenth. He was separated from the rest of the ‘big six’ by Sergio Perez, the McLarens and Felipe Massa.

The second Force India was driven by Mercedes junior driver George Russell, who ended the session just outside the top ten in 11th place.

Conditions were dusty and slippery around parts of the track which led to several drivers spinning. Romain Grosjean made light contact with a barrier in his Haas, Antonio Giovinazzi spun the team’s other car and Nico Hulkenberg also lost control of his Renault at turn 14.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
15Sebastian VettelFerrari1’39.00622
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’39.1260.12024
333Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’39.1540.14815
47Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’39.5180.51222
577Valtteri BottasMercedes1’39.7410.73529
611Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’40.2931.28723
714Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’40.5221.51619
82Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Honda1’40.5691.56314
919Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’40.7231.71726
103Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’40.7731.76729
1135George RussellForce India-Mercedes1’41.1312.12526
128Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’41.3062.30023
1318Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’41.5812.57526
1410Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Renault1’41.6462.64028
1555Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’41.7482.74223
1694Pascal WehrleinSauber-Ferrari1’41.7522.74625
1727Nico HulkenbergRenault1’41.8642.85826
1850Antonio GiovinazziHaas-Ferrari1’42.0653.05921
199Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’42.3443.33827
2028Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Renault1’42.5853.57935

First practice visual gaps

Sebastian Vettel – 1’39.006

+0.120 Lewis Hamilton – 1’39.126

+0.148 Max Verstappen – 1’39.154

+0.512 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’39.518

+0.735 Valtteri Bottas – 1’39.741

+1.287 Sergio Perez – 1’40.293

+1.516 Fernando Alonso – 1’40.522

+1.563 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’40.569

+1.717 Felipe Massa – 1’40.723

+1.767 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’40.773

+2.125 George Russell – 1’41.131

+2.300 Romain Grosjean – 1’41.306

+2.575 Lance Stroll – 1’41.581

+2.640 Pierre Gasly – 1’41.646

+2.742 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’41.748

+2.746 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’41.752

+2.858 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’41.864

+3.059 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’42.065

+3.338 Marcus Ericsson – 1’42.344

+3.579 Brendon Hartley – 1’42.585

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

Best times by tyre

DriverTeamBest ultra-soft timeUltra-soft gapBest super-soft timeSuper-soft gapBest soft timeSoft gap
Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’39.1260.12None1’41.135
Valtteri BottasMercedes1’39.7410.7351’42.6522.138None
Daniel RicciardoRed Bull1’40.7731.767None2’37.28656.151
Max VerstappenRed Bull1’39.1540.1481’40.514None
Sebastian VettelFerrari1’39.006NoneNone
Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’39.5180.512NoneNone
Sergio PerezForce India1’40.2931.287NoneNone
George RussellForce India1’41.1312.125None1’42.1961.061
Felipe MassaWilliams1’40.7231.717NoneNone
Lance StrollWilliams1’41.5812.575None1’42.8121.677
Fernando AlonsoMcLaren1’40.5221.516NoneNone
Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren1’40.5691.5631’41.3730.859None
Brendon HartleyToro Rosso1’42.5853.5791’44.1183.604None
Pierre GaslyToro Rosso1’41.6462.641’42.3911.877None
Romain GrosjeanHaas1’41.3062.3None1’42.5741.439
Antonio GiovinazziHaas1’42.0653.059None1’43.5302.395
Nico HulkenbergRenaultNone1’41.8641.35None
Carlos Sainz JnrRenaultNone1’41.7481.234None
Marcus EricssonSauber1’42.3443.338NoneNone
Pascal WehrleinSauber1’41.7522.746None1’43.6722.537

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull covered by a tenth in first practice”

  1. Was this the last ever free to air FP1?

    1. One more year in the UK I believe.

    2. Was this the last ever free to air FP1?

      F1 moving indoors?

    3. @ Egonovi

      ofcourse not, next year F1 will purchase the air that it intakes, this will be the last year it gets air for free.

    4. In the UK at least, F1 has one more year with some coverage on free-to-air television:

      https://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2016/03/23/uk-lose-live-free-air-f1-2019-sky/

      Other countries have free-to-air deals which go beyond that.

      1. Thanks for that Keith.

  2. Free to air isn’t exactly free anyway, is it? Here in Canada there is no option to buy F1 coverage separately, it is part of the satellite package we pay for. TSN gives us the Sky feed and it’s the best coverage we’ve ever had. So for us we’re at about $1500 annually for all the channels we subscribe to. TSN can be had cheaper as it is included in packages having fewer channels than we choose to have, and price depends on if you want some or all channels in HD too. You’d still be into about a grand a year anyway. That’s what it is for us in Canada and I’m very happy with it and hope it continues.

  3. Is K Mag the only driver in the V6 era to have driven the cars powered by all the engine suppliers ?
    in 2014, he drove McMercedes
    in 2015, he drove McHonda ( in Australia)
    in 2016, he drove Renault
    in 2017, he drove Haas powered by Ferrari.

    I find this interesting.

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