Abu Dhabi GP: Vettel leads Hamilton, Verstappen in FP1

The Ferrari driver clocked a 1m39.006s on the ultrasoft Pirelli tyres to end the 90-minute session 0.120 seconds clear of Hamilton at Yas Marina.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was only 0.028s further back in third place, with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen fourth, half a second off the ultimate pace.

Hamilton was the early pace-setter, clocking a 1m41.135s on the soft tyres, with teammate Valtteri Bottas focusing on the supersoft tyres.

Raikkonen, whose Ferrari featured a Red Bull-style diffuser as part of the team's experiments for 2018, then went quickest on the ultrasofts.

The Finn improved again to a 1m39.741s, but was then demoted as Hamilton and Bottas fitted the ultrasoft tyres just before the halfway mark.

Bottas was the first to cross the line, moving to the top of the pile with a 1m39.741s, but Hamilton beat that by an impressive 0.615s.

Verstappen's first effort on the ultrasofts was just a fraction off Hamilton's pace, but both were bumped down when Vettel did his ultra-soft run.

Bottas ended the session fifth quickest, ahead of Force India's Sergio Perez, who was 1.287s off the pace.

Fernando Alonso didn't set a laptime until the second half of the session, with the McLaren driver slotting straight into the top 10 on the ultrasoft tyres.

He ended up seventh, 1.516s off the pace and just 0.037s ahead of McLaren teammate Stoffel Vandoorne in eighth.

Felipe Massa, contesting his final F1 grand prix weekend, was ninth for Williams with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top 10.

Mercedes protege George Russell borrowed Esteban Ocon's Force India for FP1 and ended up 11th fastest, eight tenths adrift of Perez.

Antonio Giovinazzi was the other non-race driver to take part in the session, with the Italian running in place of Kevin Magnussen and going 18th quickest.

Renault's Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg were down in 15th and 17th respectively, but they did not run the ultrasoft tyre.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	23	1'39.006
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	25	1'39.126	0.120
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	15	1'39.154	0.148
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	22	1'39.518	0.512
5	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	30	1'39.741	0.735
6	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	24	1'40.293	1.287
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	20	1'40.522	1.516
8	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Honda	15	1'40.569	1.563
9	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	27	1'40.723	1.717
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	29	1'40.773	1.767
11	George Russell	Force India	Mercedes	26	1'41.131	2.125
12	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	24	1'41.306	2.300
13	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	27	1'41.581	2.575
14	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	Renault	29	1'41.646	2.640
15	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	Renault	23	1'41.748	2.742
16	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	Ferrari	26	1'41.752	2.746
17	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	26	1'41.864	2.858
18	Antonio Giovinazzi	Haas	Ferrari	21	1'42.065	3.059
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	28	1'42.344	3.338
20	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	Renault	35	1'42.585	3.579