Abu Dhabi – Free Practice 1: Hamilton Outpaces Rosberg in the Opening Act

It is obviously under the hot sun of Abu Dhabi that the first free practice session will start. On the reserve drivers’ side, Esteban Ocon is noted in place of Romain Grosjean at Lotus, and Adderly Fong in place of Adrian Sutil at Sauber. The Caterhams are indeed present with the newcomer, Will Stevens.

**The session is underway!** Quickly, most drivers complete their installation lap. At McLaren, Kevin Magnussen has fitted Pitot probes on his car to measure airflow. There’s a lot of work being done by the gray team to prepare for 2015. After a quarter of an hour, Maldonado is the first to set a benchmark at 1:48.729, but times quickly follow. On the Caterham side, Kamui Kobayashi is informed that no data is coming back to the pits via telemetry. Will Stevens, for his part, had to come to a stop due to a technical issue on the CT05.

The Williams team is facing astonishing problems: the sidepods are not staying in place. While Felipe Massa complains on the radio and his sidepod seems poorly fixed, Valtteri Bottas’s sidepod detached on a straight. Both cars return to the pits.

After half an hour, Rosberg is leading ahead of Hamilton, Bottas, Alonso, and Vettel. On the track, calm prevails for a long moment before the drivers return to the course. The Mercedes, in particular, both improve their times, but this time Hamilton is ahead of Rosberg by four-tenths. The improvements continue, with Hamilton progressing by one-tenth.

After an hour, Hamilton, Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, and Ricciardo form the top 5. The drivers have embarked on long stints. Will Stevens can return to the track: Caterham has fixed the problem. At Williams, work continues on both cars.

The session concludes with the order of the last half hour.