Abu Dhabi F1 Practice Results: Russell Fastest, Drugović Beats Stroll.

In the first practice session of the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix, Mercedes driver Russell topped the timesheets with a lap of 1 minute 26.072 seconds. Aston Martin’s Drugović and AlphaTauri’s Ricciardo secured second and third places respectively. Over ten rookie drivers replaced F1 regulars for testing in this session. The rest of the top ten were Bottas, Stroll, Piastri, Sainz, Schumacher, Gasly, and Yuki Tsunoda.

The start of the first practice session for the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix marked the beginning of the season’s finale.

In the Abu Dhabi F1 practice, more than ten rookie drivers took part in place of their respective teams, with Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo F1 seat being occupied by the team’s junior driver Pourchaire.

After twenty minutes into the session, Russell from Mercedes, Tsunoda from AlphaTauri, and Sainz from Ferrari held the top three positions.

Later, Alpine’s Doohan had a close call with Williams’ Sargeant on track. As Doohan approached a corner, Sargeant suddenly veered inward, causing a moment of alarm for Doohan.

Halfway through the practice, Russell in the Mercedes improved his fastest lap time again on soft tires, albeit by just 0.009 seconds.

Several drivers struggled with tire temperatures, causing spins at Turn 16, but no incidents occurred.

With ten minutes remaining in the session, rookie Drugović from Aston Martin moved up to second place overall. Meanwhile, his teammate Stroll was only in fifteenth position.

Nearing the end of the practice, Stroll of Aston Martin and Red Bull rookie Hajaar narrowly avoided a collision. Hajaar, approaching at high speed, nearly collided with Stroll, who was driving slowly on the straight but didn’t move out of the way.

Finally, here are the last ten positions in the first practice session: Sargeant, Vesti, Doohan, Pourchaire, O’Ward, Dennis, Hajaar, O’Sullivan, Magnussen, and Berman.