Mercedes 1-2 in first Abu Dhabi F1 practice, scare for Sargeant

Fresh off its first win of the season delivered with a 1-2 in Brazil, Mercedes again locked out the top two spots in the opening practice for the Formula 1 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Key moments:

> Hamilton heads Russell

> Verstappen sub Lawson leads stand-ins

> Heart-in-mouth moment for Sargeant

Lewis Hamilton headed team-mate George Russell in a session filled with stand-in rookie drivers, which meant a number of full-timer absentees – including world champion Max Verstappen.

Williams’ presumptive 2023 driver Logan Sargeant was among the stand-ins, and logged the sufficient laps to presumably bank a valuable extra superlicence points for his tally – but not without misadventure en route to it.

Hamilton took the lead with a soft-tyre run in the final stretch, jumping ahead of Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who himself had usurped Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

The other Mercedes, that of George Russell, then headed Hamilton in the first sector, but ultimately slipped 0.22s back, albeit remaining ahead of Leclerc.

Verstappen’s stand-in Liam Lawson, making a practice appearance with Red Bull after two sessions with AlphaTauri earlier this season, impressed – featuring in third place after his initial hard-tyre run and then ending up fifth, two tenths down on Perez.

The Kiwi did have a minor mishap, missing the entry to his pitbox in the middle of the session as by Formula 2 habit he hadn’t realised how early the Red Bull garage is.

"Can we push? Sorry, I'm used to driving further down" 📻

Liam Lawson who's in for Max Verstappen, forgets that he needs to pit at the Red Bull garage for this session 🫣#AbuDhabiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/0bWTaRTK2D

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 18, 2022

Sebastian Vettel kicked off his farewell Formula 1 weekend by placing sixth for Aston, ahead of Ferrari rookie Robert Shwartzman – standing in for Carlos Sainz and lapping half a second off Leclerc.

McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo, for whom this likewise could be his final F1 weekend as he is replaced by Oscar Piastri in the Woking-based team next season, was the last driver within a second of Hamilton in eighth.

Sargeant, who got into the Williams car after placing fourth in the sole practice session of the Formula 2 finale (pivotal to his superlicence hopes), was just a quarter of a second off regular Alex Albon.

But he also spun at Turn 1 and was lucky to avoid a big hit against the barriers. This could’ve been problematic as he stood to gain a superlicence point for completing 100km of penalty-free running in this session – but, had the crash been terminal, he would’ve come up well short.

The spin did ruin his set of softs, but with no damage to the FW44 he returned to the track and comfortably cleared the requisite 19-lap mark.

There's a spin for Logan Sargeant at Turn 1

He just managed to avoid the barriers and is back on track#AbuDhabiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/xOjL8DWlhg

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 18, 2022

Of the other stand-ins, Alfa Romeo reserve Robert Kubica was one place up on Sargeant in 14th, acknowledging to his team that he’d been “screwing up in a lot of places”.

Haas reserve Pietro Fittipaldi was 17th, within a tenth of regular driver Kevin Magnussen, but also having had a near-miss with Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri).

IndyCar standout Patricio O’Ward was 18th, logging 22 laps despite an early issue that gave off the appearance of being terminal. On his initial outlap, he reported an issue with his McLaren and spent over four minutes crawling back to the pits – but soon fortunately returned to the track.

Jack Doohan (Alpine) and F2 champion Felipe Drugovich completed the order.

Practice 1 Results