2020 F1 Abu Dhabi GP Friday practice results

Seven-time world champion Hamilton was forced to miss last weekend's Sakhir Grand Prix after testing positive for COVID-19, one day after his victory in Bahrain. He since returned two negative test results, fulfilling the entry requirements to make his comeback.

In FP1, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen pipped Bottas for the fastest time by 0.034s with a laptime of 1m37.378s. Renault’s Esteban Ocon was over a second off their pace in third, but fractions clear of the second Red Bull of Alex Albon.

Hamilton was fifth fastest, setting his quickest time on the hard tyre, beating both Racing Points of Lance Stroll and Sakhir GP winner Sergio Perez.

Hamilton’s Sakhir stand-in George Russell was 16^th for Williams, 3s off the pace of the Mercedes he drove last weekend. Robert Kubica returned to F1 for Alfa Romeo again, and was 15^th fastest, while FIA F2 champion Mick Schumacher made his FP1 debut for Haas, ending the session 18^th quickest.

In FP2, once Pirelli’s 2021 prototype rubber was used by every team early on, Bottas set the pace on the regular medium tyre of 1m36.276s, two tenths quicker than Hamilton.

Hamilton then set 1m36.097s on softs, but it was deleted for exceeding track limits at the final corner. Bottas had a big moment on his soft-tyre run, while Verstappen had to abort his due to traffic, but not before he’d set the fastest first sector.

Verstappen ended the session third, 0.77s off the pace, ahead of Albon, Lando Norris (McLaren), Ocon, Perez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

There were late dramas as Russell suffered a failure in the rear-end of his Williams, and Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo suffered a serious conflagration which caused a red flag.

F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Free Practice 1 results

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	Honda	26	1'37.378			205.327
2	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	Mercedes	32	1'37.412	0.034	0.034	205.256
3	Esteban Ocon		Renault	Renault	34	1'38.515	1.137	1.103	202.957
4	Alex Albon		Red Bull	Honda	25	1'38.547	1.169	0.032	202.892
5	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	Mercedes	24	1'38.744	1.366	0.197	202.487
6	Lance Stroll		Racing Point	Mercedes	25	1'38.831	1.453	0.087	202.308
7	Sergio Perez		Racing Point	Mercedes	25	1'38.956	1.578	0.125	202.053
8	Daniil Kvyat		AlphaTauri	Honda	27	1'39.150	1.772	0.194	201.658
9	Pierre Gasly		AlphaTauri	Honda	30	1'39.160	1.782	0.010	201.637
10	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	22	1'39.199	1.821	0.039	201.558
11	Carlos Sainz Jr.		McLaren	Renault	27	1'39.330	1.952	0.131	201.292
12	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	Ferrari	25	1'39.344	1.966	0.014	201.264
13	Lando Norris		McLaren	Renault	28	1'39.352	1.974	0.008	201.248
14	Sebastian Vettel		Ferrari	Ferrari	19	1'39.670	2.292	0.318	200.605
15	Robert Kubica		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	19	1'39.905	2.527	0.235	200.134
16	George Russell		Williams	Mercedes	24	1'40.446	3.068	0.541	199.056
17	Nicholas Latifi		Williams	Mercedes	27	1'41.063	3.685	0.617	197.840
18	Mick Schumacher		Haas	Ferrari	23	1'41.235	3.857	0.172	197.504
19	Pietro Fittipaldi		Haas	Ferrari	24	1'44.069	6.691	2.834	192.126
20	Daniel Ricciardo		Renault	Renault	3
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F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Free Practice 2 results

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	Mercedes	28	1'36.276			207.677
2	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	Mercedes	30	1'36.479	0.203	0.203	207.240
3	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	Honda	30	1'37.046	0.770	0.567	206.030
4	Alex Albon		Red Bull	Honda	33	1'37.263	0.987	0.217	205.570
5	Lando Norris		McLaren	Renault	29	1'37.438	1.162	0.175	205.201
6	Esteban Ocon		Renault	Renault	30	1'37.505	1.229	0.067	205.060
7	Sergio Perez		Racing Point	Mercedes	35	1'37.506	1.230	0.001	205.058
8	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	Ferrari	31	1'37.508	1.232	0.002	205.053
9	Daniel Ricciardo		Renault	Renault	29	1'37.508	1.232	0.000	205.053
10	Lance Stroll		Racing Point	Mercedes	29	1'37.560	1.284	0.052	204.944
11	Daniil Kvyat		AlphaTauri	Honda	32	1'37.596	1.320	0.036	204.869
12	Carlos Sainz Jr.		McLaren	Renault	31	1'37.616	1.340	0.020	204.827
13	Pierre Gasly		AlphaTauri	Honda	32	1'37.900	1.624	0.284	204.232
14	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	28	1'38.068	1.792	0.168	203.883
15	Sebastian Vettel		Ferrari	Ferrari	32	1'38.198	1.922	0.130	203.613
16	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	Ferrari	34	1'38.504	2.228	0.306	202.980
17	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	31	1'38.564	2.288	0.060	202.857
18	George Russell		Williams	Mercedes	24	1'38.817	2.541	0.253	202.337
19	Pietro Fittipaldi		Haas	Ferrari	25	1'39.027	2.751	0.210	201.908
20	Nicholas Latifi		Williams	Mercedes	31	1'39.132	2.856	0.105	201.694
View full results

F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Free Practice as it happened