Abu Dhabi GP: Positive start for Williams in FP1

The opening Friday practice session for the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix would see the rush of drivers coming out for their installation laps. For the Williams F1 team Valtteri Bottas would again replace Bruno Senna for this session. Pirelli had brought their medium and soft tyres for the weekend with the medium tyre being the tyre of choice in this session. The first time of the session would come from the Marussia of Chilton with a 2m:27.380 as he carried out some aero testing. Of the bigger teams it would be Hulkenberg who would come back out first but he would pit without setting a time. Chilton had pitted but would return followed by Vergne. Vergne was on his flying lap and would set a 1m:48.885 to go quickest with thirty minutes of the session completed.

For Williams Pastor Maldonado would take to the track first as Vergne set a 1m:47.117. Valtteri would also leave the pits joined by Perez. Vergne would continue to improve setting a 1m:46.708. On his first lap Pastor would set a 1m:47.847. Bianchi and Raikkonen would also take to the track as Valtteri set a 1m:47.308 to be second and Pastor now third. Perez would go fourth as Grosjean also came out followed by Hulkenberg. The track was becoming busier as Schumacher also came out as Valtteri went fastest with a 1m:46.085 with Perez second from Vergne and Pastor. Pastor would also find time setting a 1m:46.406 to be second. Raikkonen was now fifth followed by Bianchi and Chilton. Massa was also out on the track along with Rosberg, Ricciardo, and Kovalainen. Grosjean would set a 1m:47.667 to be
sixth.

Valtteri would improve setting a 1m:45.602 to remain quickest. Pastor was still second from Perez, Vergne, Grosjean, and Bianchi. more drivers would set quicker times with Bianchi now second from Raikkonen and Massa now fourth. We had yet to see either Red Bull or McLaren take to the track. Alonso was now out as Massa set a 1m:46.048 to be second. After his first run Pastor would pit while Valtteri was still fastest with a 1m:45.602. Rosberg was now second, 1m:45.997, but Perez would take this spot with a 1m:45.965. Webber was now out on the track while Pastor had also come back out after a brief stop. Williams would say that Valtteri was doing setup work while Pastor was doping aero evaluations. Schumacher would go fastest with a 1m:45.309 followed by Valtteri, Bianchi, Alonso, Perez, Rosberg, Grosjean, Massa, Raikkonen, and Pastor now tenth.

Valtteri had set a 1m:45.401 improving on his earlier time as he would pit with forty two minutes remaining. Alonso was on a quick lap going fastest in sector one as we now had Button, Hamilton, and Vettel out on the track. Alonso would go fastest in sector two and would finish his lap with a 1m:45.099 to be quickest. Vergne and Ricciardo were now eleventh and twelfth. Massa would also improve to now be fourth, 1m:45.573. Vettel was now tenth, 1m:46.277, with Webber improving to be ninth, 1m:46.013. Vettel had dropped to eleventh as Hamilton's first run would see him set a 1m:45.322 to be third. Vettel's next lap would see him set a 1m:45.402 to be fifth and Massa sixth. Hamilton was also on a quick lap setting a 1m:44.001 to be fastest by 1.098 seconds. Pastor had also pitted as Vettel set a 1m:44.643 to be second. Button was also on a quick lap going fastest in sector one. Valtteri was back out currently in fifth. Pastor had dropped to currently be fourteenth.

Button would complete his lap setting a 1m:44.148 to be second as Vettel pitted briefly. Valtteri was now sixth as Hamilton continued to improve setting a 1m:43.449. Hamilton would continue to improve setting a 1m:43.285 to be fastest by 0.749 over Button. Webber was now up to fourth with a 1m:44.452. For Williams booth Valtteri and Pastor had been back out on the track with Pastor moving ahead of Valtteri with a 1m:45.347 to currently be eighth and Valtteri ninth also with a 1m:45.347. Schumacher was now fifth from Alonso and Rosberg seventh. Both McLaren's had pitted but would come back out again. As the final ten minutes of the session would down Frank Williams would look on as both his drivers circulated around the track. Button had set a 1m:43.748 but remained second. Back out for their final runs Pastor and Valtteri would continue their evaluations and Pastor would find a few tenths to move up to seventh with a 1m:45.115.

With the end of the session it would be Hamilton fastest with a time of 1m:43.285, ahead of team-mate Button, Vettel, Alonso, Webber, Schumacher, Pastor, Rosberg, Valtteri, and Raikkonen tenth. A positive start to the weekend for the Williams team with both drivers in the top ten but both drivers were over 1.8 seconds off the quickest times but they were not alone in this respect with the likes of Massa, Grosjean Kobayashi, and Perez outside the top ten.

Pos  Driver         	 Team		       Time      Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m43.285s  20
 2.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m43.618s  18
 3.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m44.050s  21
 4.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m44.366s  20
 5.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m44.542s  21
 6.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m44.694s  21
 7.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      1m45.115s  24
 8.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes      	       1m45.194s  19
 9.  Valtteri Bottas     Williams-Renault      1m45.347s  23
10.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault         1m45.422s  15
11.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m45.567s  23
12.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m45.587s  18
13.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m45.722s  19
14.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault         1m45.743s  19
15.  Jules Bianchi       Force India-Mercedes  1m45.769s  21
16.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m45.811s  21
17.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m46.649s  22
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m46.708s  24
19.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault      1m47.418s  22
20.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     1m47.891s  19
21.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth          1m48.354s  21
22.  Max Chilton         Marussia-Cosworth     1m48.887s  21
23.  Ma Qing Hua         HRT-Cosworth          1m50.487s  20
24.  Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault      no time    3