Encouraging Signs for Verstappen as Hamilton-Bottas Struggle to Tag Along During FP1 in Abu Dhabi

Max Verstappen embraced an early advantage in the finale F1 weekend, as the Dutchman led the timesheets of the first practice session in Abu Dhabi. Lewis Hamilton tagged along quite well, yet struggled to beat Verstappen throughout the session.

Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez managed to inch closer to Verstappen, hinting at an insane 4-way battle for the win. Behind the hard-battling Mercedes and Red Bull, AlphaTauri pair, Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly, enjoyed a commendable session, claiming P5 and P7, with Fernando Alonso sneaking his Alpine between the two into P6.

How the F1 session unfolded

Hamilton clocked the fastest lap of the afternoon with a 1:27:148, but Verstappen superseded the lap with a 1:2:463 to go fastest. Then arrived the comeback lap from the Briton, who regained the lead with a 1:26:290, almost giving us hints of what’s to come on Saturday and Sunday.

Formula One F1 – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – December 10, 2021 Red Bull’s Max Verstappen during practice REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

Most of the drivers stuck with the softest tire compound, the red-marked C5 soft tires. Meanwhile, a few including Raikkonen and the Haas duo chose to run with medium, and Giovinazzi opted for hard tires.

Meanwhile, there was a moment of panic in Red Bull’s garage; 25 minutes into the session, Verstappen headed back to the garage after complaining of steering wheel issues. Thankfully, all it took was 8 minutes for the engineers to figure out what was wrong and manage to rectify it.

Red Bull showing signs of superiority over Mercedes

From the moment the pit lane opened, Verstappen produced some decent enough laps, with the fastest being 1:25:300. Hamilton, despite showing looking as rapid as ever, struggled to match the Dutchman in terms of one-lap pace.

Formula One F1 – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – December 10, 2021 Mercedes mechanics during a tyre change exercise on the car of Valtteri Bottas ahead of practice REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

The Briton ended up over 0.25s behind his rival. Meanwhile, Perez crucially looked quite pacy against his Mercedes equivalent, Bottas. Hence, we could well witness Perez and Bottas helping out their respective teammates in clinching the world championship title.

Turn 1 causing more troubles

Over the 60-minute session, F1 drivers struggled to keep their cars under control over a few corners, with turn 1 standing tall as the most complicated.

Formula One F1 – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – December 10, 2021 Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton during practice REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

The list included the Alfa Romeo duo Giovinazzi, Raikkonen, and Mercedes’ Bottas, who ended up running wide twice in two back-to-back laps. Hence, this could well cause the teams a lot of headaches over what is the most crucial qualifying session of the season.

Overall, a rather peaceful session comes to an end, but this almost feels like the ‘calm before the storm’, as the buzz is all set to rise in the follow-up sessions.

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