Abu Dhabi GP: Hamilton outpaces Rosberg in FP1

Hamilton, who trails Rosberg by 12 points ahead of the season finale, posted a best time of 1:42.869 on soft tyres to beat his Mercedes teammate by nearly four tenths of a second.

The Mercedes drivers used the ultrasoft tyres for their first runs, but only Rosberg set his fastest time with them. 

Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo finished in third and fourth as they appeared to be Mercedes' closest challenger once more.

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, who spent a significant part of the session running with the Halo on, rounded out the top five, albeit over a second off Hamilton's pace.

Teammate Kimi Raikkonen was seventh quickest, the Ferrari drivers split by the Force India of Sergio Perez.

As the session started, the championship contenders took the longest to leave their garages, with Rosberg not hitting the track until the first 10 minutes had passed.

Hamilton took even longer, the Briton going out a couple of minutes after his teammate.

Rosberg was the first driver to register a time, however, the German posting a 1:43.873 nearly 15 minutes into the running. Hamilton went second quickest before Rosberg improved and opened a gap of nearly a second.

There was drama again for Toro Rosso 20 minutes into the session, as Daniil Kvyat suffered another puncture to his left rear tyre.

The Russian tried to crawl back to the pits but was eventually asked to park his car to avoid further damage.

Kvyat would not run again and would finish at the bottom of the times nearly 20 seconds off the pace.

After the yellow flags cleared, Hamilton moved to the top of the times with a 1:43.051 on ultrasofts as Jordan King, replacing Esteban Ocon in the Manor, spun his car after losing the rear.

Felipe Massa, in the final FP1 of his career, followed with another spin at Turn 5, the Brazilian continuing without further drama.

Minutes later it was Hamilton's turn to spin at the same corner as the Briton warmed up his ultrasoft tyres for another run.

Verstappen jumped to third on soft tyres with 55 minutes go ahead, the Dutchman over half a second off the pace of the Mercedes duo.

Romain Grosjean triggered a yellow-flag period with 33 minutes to go when he went off the track at Turn 1. The Haas driver had already gone off previously at Turn 6.

"l don't know what happened, it's just the rear brake. It needs to be sorted because it's not normal," reported the Frenchman.

There were problems for Jenson Button a few minutes later, the Briton asked to return to the pits right away before jumping out of his McLaren as his mechanics started working on it.

With 26 minutes to go, Hamilton went quicker with a run of new soft tyres, the Briton posting a 1:42.869 as Rosberg ran very wide at the final corner.

Verstappen and Ricciardo, also on softs, improved as well, but stayed in third and fourth nearly half a second off the pace.

First practice times:

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	27	1'42.869
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	31	1'43.243	0.374	0.374
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	26	1'43.297	0.428	0.054
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	26	1'43.362	0.493	0.065
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	27	1'44.005	1.136	0.643
6	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	22	1'44.155	1.286	0.150
7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	26	1'44.556	1.687	0.401
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	21	1'44.685	1.816	0.129
9	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	27	1'45.039	2.170	0.354
10	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	20	1'45.168	2.299	0.129
11	Alfonso Celis Jr.	Force India	Mercedes	26	1'45.476	2.607	0.308
12	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	13	1'45.600	2.731	0.124
13	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	17	1'45.778	2.909	0.178
14	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	Ferrari	20	1'45.925	3.056	0.147
15	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	31	1'45.940	3.071	0.015
16	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	32	1'46.219	3.350	0.279
17	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	Renault	20	1'46.372	3.503	0.153
18	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	21	1'46.379	3.510	0.007
19	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	Mercedes	29	1'46.458	3.589	0.079
20	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	10	1'47.127	4.258	0.669
21	Jordan King	Manor	Mercedes	26	1'47.558	4.689	0.431
22	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	4	2'01.989	19.120	14.431