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Max Verstappen tops FP1 with Hamilton down in third

Max Verstappen tops FP1 with Hamilton down in third

10-12-2021 10:35 Last update: 11:41
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Cameron Smith

Max Verstappen was quickest in the first free practice session ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi. The Dutchman beat out Valtteri Bottas and title rival Lewis Hamilton to top spot in the opening session of this final race weekend of 2021.

Verstappen dominated throughout, and while he and Hamilton exchanged fastest laps in the early stages, the Red Bull driver then set about consolidating his place at the top with several quickest laps to see off competition from the Mercedes drivers.

Bottas was also quicker than his teammate, with Hamilton's fastest lap deleted for exceeding track limits at the final corner, leaving him in third place.

Running the soft tyres throughout, Red Bull seem to have a slight edge, with their final sector particularly eye-catching. Sergio Perez ended the session in fourth, just edging out Yuki Tsunoda in P5.

The AlphaTauri driver was over four tenths quicker than teammate Pierre Gasly, setting up a potentially promising weekend for Tsunoda, who has been consistently off Gasly's pace this season.

Fernando Alonso, the aforementioned Gasly, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, and Sebastian Vettel rounded off the top 10.

As it happened

In perhaps the most highly-anticipated FP1 session of the season, it was unsurprisingly Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton who traded turns at the top of the timesheet.

Hamilton immediately went quickest, with Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris rounding off the top three after the first set of flying laps.

Then Verstappen showed his hand with several purple sectors in the opening quarter of an hour. Perhaps the biggest talking point, though, was the speed of Alpine. Fernando Alonso put his car in P1 after 20 minutes, while Esteban Ocon jumped up to seventh when the Spaniard fell down to sixth.

While they were impressing, Ferrari began the session by fitting a rake on the rear of Charles Leclerc's car, which didn't seem to help with the Scuderia well off the pace in P13 and P14.

In fact, that pace never really came for Ferrari, with the Prancing Horses still outside the top 10 with less than 20 minutes of the session remaining.

They struggling, while AlphaTauri had found the right set-up. Pierre Gasly narrowly trailed his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in the final 15 minutes, but both drivers were in the top seven with the Japanese driver running in fourth, ahead of Sergio Perez, towards the end of FP1.

Turn nine proved to be a slightly difficult corner to navigate throughout the session, and Lando Norris was the latest to run wide at that corner going into the final stages.

Perez eventually jumped Tsunoda by the end of the session, while Ferrari found some pace to jump into the top 10, and ahead of both McLaren's.