One British Formula One world champion led another in first practice for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix yesterday, with Lewis Hamilton just ahead of successor Jenson Button.
Spanish rookie Jaime Alguersuari, driving a Toro Rosso, had the honor of setting the first competitive timed lap at the lavish new Yas Marina circuit in an incident-free opening session.
McLaren’s Hamilton and Brawn’s Button traded fastest laps toward the end of the session, with the outgoing champion coming out on top with a best of 1 minute, 43.939 seconds.
Button, looking forward to his first race of the year with no pressure after he secured the title at the previous race in Brazil, was 0.096 seconds slower.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was third on the timesheets ahead of Brawn’s Rubens Barrichello. The two are fighting for second place overall in the championship.
With track temperatures of 35ºC and a new but dusty surface, the leading drivers sat out the first half hour before taking to the track.
“It is a cool track, it’s going to be good to race on and from a driver’s perspective, it sure is fun,” said Germany’s Nico Rosberg, preparing for his last race for Williams. “Obviously as the track surface is completely new, it was quite dirty, so you have to be a little careful to find your way to begin with.”
“It will be interesting to see how the track changes with the cooler temperatures which we will get a chance to see this afternoon,” Rosberg said. “Obviously this will be more reflective of the conditions we will encounter for qualifying and the race.”
Today’s floodlit race will be the first to start in daylight and end after dark. The anti-clockwise layout also has the novel features of a hotel built across the track and a pit lane exit through a tunnel.
“I haven’t pushed really hard through the narrow pitlane exit just yet, but because it is covered under the tunnel, it is a completely unique experience unlike anywhere else in the world,” Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima said.
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