Results
Formula 1 Abu Dhabi GP
F1 Grand Prix practice results: Hamilton fastest in Abu Dhabi
Lewis Hamilton was fastest for Mercedes on the opening day of Abu Dhabi Grand Prix practice at Yas Marina on Friday, ahead of the final round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Dec 10, 2021, 7:54 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
His title rival Max Verstappen of Red Bull was quickest in FP1 but Hamilton set the fastest time of the day in FP2 at 1m23.691s.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP1 results: Verstappen fastest from Bottas
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h 1 Max Verstappen
Red Bull 23 1'25.009 235.203 2 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 27 1'25.205 0.196 0.196 234.662 3 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 25 1'25.355 0.346 0.150 234.249 4 Sergio Perez
Red Bull 24 1'25.363 0.354 0.008 234.227 5 Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 23 1'25.378 0.369 0.015 234.186 6 Fernando Alonso
Alpine 26 1'25.625 0.616 0.247 233.511 7 Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 28 1'25.822 0.813 0.197 232.975 8 Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 20 1'25.846 0.837 0.024 232.910 9 Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 26 1'25.886 0.877 0.040 232.801 10 Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin 26 1'26.007 0.998 0.121 232.474 11 Esteban Ocon
Alpine 25 1'26.025 1.016 0.018 232.425 12 Lando Norris
McLaren 26 1'26.123 1.114 0.098 232.160 13 Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo 25 1'26.189 1.180 0.066 231.983 14 Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 25 1'26.409 1.400 0.220 231.392 15 Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 26 1'26.608 1.599 0.199 230.860 16 Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 29 1'26.676 1.667 0.068 230.679 17 Jack Aitken
Williams 27 1'27.481 2.472 0.805 228.557 18 Nicholas Latifi
Williams 27 1'27.487 2.478 0.006 228.541 19 Mick Schumacher
Haas 24 1'27.698 2.689 0.211 227.991 20 Nikita Mazepin
Haas 22 1'28.305 3.296 0.607 226.424 View full results
What happened in Free Practice 1?
First practice took place in daytime, meaning it was not fully representative of either qualifying or the race, both of which will occur in cooler conditions of the early evening.
Verstappen set the early pace on soft tyres at 1m26.463s before Hamilton topped it by a tenth and a half with 1m23.290s.
Verstappen stayed out and dipped under the 1m26s barrier with a 1m25.602s, while Hamilton got to within 0.218s in P2. Verstappen then went even faster, producing 1m25.300s after 20 minutes of the session, with Hamilton working down to within a quarter of a second.
Hamilton ran again on new softs, improving to 1m25.355s – 0.055s off Verstappen at that point – but Max unleashed 1m25.009s on his second run, which remained the quickest time of the session.
Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) improved to 1m25.205s to take second from Hamilton, who was 0.346s off Verstappen – but Lewis did set the fastest first and third sectors overall with a lap that was deleted for exceeding track limits.
Sergio Perez was just behind Hamilton in fourth, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri).
Read Also:
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP2 results: Hamilton fastest from Ocon
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h 1 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 26 1'23.691 238.907 2 Esteban Ocon
Alpine 29 1'24.034 0.343 0.343 237.932 3 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 29 1'24.083 0.392 0.049 237.793 4 Max Verstappen
Red Bull 25 1'24.332 0.641 0.249 237.091 5 Sergio Perez
Red Bull 26 1'24.400 0.709 0.068 236.900 6 Fernando Alonso
Alpine 27 1'24.495 0.804 0.095 236.634 7 Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 26 1'24.532 0.841 0.037 236.530 8 Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 29 1'24.557 0.866 0.025 236.460 9 Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 29 1'24.844 1.153 0.287 235.660 10 Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 27 1'24.940 1.249 0.096 235.394 11 Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 26 1'24.959 1.268 0.019 235.341 12 Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 27 1'25.108 1.417 0.149 234.929 13 Lando Norris
McLaren 27 1'25.153 1.462 0.045 234.805 14 Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin 27 1'25.195 1.504 0.042 234.689 15 Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 26 1'25.385 1.694 0.190 234.167 16 Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo 23 1'25.440 1.749 0.055 234.016 17 George Russell
Williams 29 1'25.549 1.858 0.109 233.718 18 Nicholas Latifi
Williams 22 1'25.687 1.996 0.138 233.342 19 Mick Schumacher
Haas 27 1'25.784 2.093 0.097 233.078 20 Nikita Mazepin
Haas 26 1'26.336 2.645 0.552 231.588 View full results
What happened in Free Practice 2?
As the sun began to set at the start of FP2, Hamilton set the early medium-tyred pace at 1m25.127s. Verstappen almost matched his time, but had it deleted for track limits. Max ran again and was 0.122s off Hamilton’s pace, until Lewis reset the bar at 1m24.126s – putting him almost a second clear.
Bottas hit the Turn 14 wall with his right-rear wheel, while Nicholas Latifi damaged the rear wing of his Williams during a spin at Turn 13. Following his wall clip, and a stop to check for damage, Bottas ran again – this time on soft tyres – and set a new P1 time of 1m24.083s.
Surprisingly, neither Hamilton (1m24.104s) nor Verstappen (1m24.332s) beat that on their first soft-tyred laps. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon then delivered an impressive 1m24.034s to top the session by 0.049s.
After multiple cool-down laps, Hamilton unleashed a lap of 1m23.691s – 0.641s clear of title rival Verstappen, who ended the session down in fourth behind Ocon and Bottas.
Perez was fifth quickest, ahead of Alonso and Tsunoda.
Just as the chequered flag flew, Kimi Raikkonen shunted at Turn 14, damaging three corners of his Alfa Romeo in his final F1 weekend.
Read Also:
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Abu Dhabi GP: Hamilton fastest from Ocon in second practice
Next article Hamilton, Verstappen back "enjoyable" Abu Dhabi F1 track changes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Charles Bradley
Mika Hakkinen on his darkest day in F1
Formula 1
Formula 1
Mika Hakkinen on his darkest day in F1
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him!” before Hamlin clash
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him!” before Hamlin clash
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
Latest news
Why McLaren gave team order to Oscar Piastri in F1 US GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
1 h
Why McLaren gave team order to Oscar Piastri in F1 US GP
Winners and losers from a frantic NASCAR Cup race at Talladega
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
2 h
Winners and losers from a frantic NASCAR Cup race at Talladega
Herta endorses IndyCar’s international return with Barcelona while marveling at Palou’s dominance
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 2 h
Herta endorses IndyCar’s international return with Barcelona while marveling at Palou’s dominance
Why Chase Elliott has removed his name from NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Ballot
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
3 h
Why Chase Elliott has removed his name from NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Ballot
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe