While FP1 doesn't mean anything for the world championship, it does give some kind of a performance indication for the cars. And title leader Max Verstappen who has an edge over Lewis Hamilton by virtue of more wins has now mailed P1 in the first practice session at the Yas Marina Circuit, lapping almost two tenths faster than the Mercedes duo. It should be remembered that Verstappen won the last race here. This year, there have been some modifications to the track especially turn 5, turn 9, and the turn 12-15 complex under the hotel.
Most of the field ran soft tyres and Hamilton didn't even manage P2 in the session after one of his faster laps got deleted. It was Bottas who had the fastest Mercedes in P2 behind Verstappen by 0.196 seconds. Sergio Perez was not far behind Hamilton in P4 with just 0.008 seconds separating them.
Interestingly, Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri and his teammate Gasly managed P5 and P7 which means even the Honda-powered Red Bull b-team is working well on this track which could discourage any Mercedes plan for Hamilton to take an engine penalty for greater top speed granted by a new engine that can run unhinged as it needs to just last one race. This would mean a 5 place penalty and Hamilton will find himself behind three Red Bull-owned cars which could make things very difficult for him.
The relationship between Hamilton and Verstappen has deteriorated over the course of the season
Alonso in the Alpine split the AlphaTauri duo for P6 while Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari just managed P8 ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr who managed P9. One can expect the Ferrari duo to ramp up the pace and perhaps be ahead of the AlphaTauri and Alpine as on average the Italian team has had the third-fastest car on the grid.
Vettel rounded off the top 10 for Aston Martin ahead of the other Alpine of Ocon in P11. The McLaren of Norris struggled to P12 while Kimi Raikkonen in his final race weekend managed P13 in the Alfa Romeo. His teammate Antonio Giovinazzi who also is in his final F1 weekend for Alfa Romeo just managed P14. Though the duo was ahead of Stroll's Aston Martin and Ricciardo's McLaren.
Jack Aitken replaced Russell for Williams in the session and managed a decent P17 ahead of Williams regular Latifi who just managed P18. Mick Schumacher managed P19 in the Haas ahead of his teammate Mazepin who was P20, but both the drivers had to be super careful as the team doesn't have enough parts for a new chassis, and a shunt before the race would mean that they wouldn't be able to start the race.
All in all, a riveting FP1 for what is the most exciting F1 weekend we have seen in over a decade. Prepare for a humdinger.
