Liam Lawson completed a tidy 27 laps, the equal most of any driver, to set the 12th fastest time in the opening practice session in Abu Dhabi.
The Kiwi star’s 1:25.563 was only 0.08 seconds off tenth-placed driver Sergio Perez.
Free Practice 1 in the United Arab Emirates featured a number of rookie drivers, including Charles Leclerc’s brother Arthur Leclerc in place of Carlos Sainz at Ferrari, Felipe Drugovich in for Lance Stroll at Aston Martin, Toyota World Endurance star Ryo Hirakawa at McLaren for Oscar Piastri, Ayumu Iwasa for Yuki Tsunoda at RB, Luke Browning for Alex Albon at Williams, and Isack Hadjar for World Champion Max Verstappen at Red Bull.
The fastest time, a 1:24.321, was set by Charles Leclerc, despite the Monegasque sitting out the opening half the session as his team worked on a battery issue.
Once on the track, he was quickly up to speed and jumped to the top of the leaderboard with an effort two-tenths faster than McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Norris finished the session in second, two and a half tenths faster than Lewis Hamilton, who is competing in his final Grand Prix for Mercedes.
George Russell followed his teammate in fourth, in front of Pierre Gasly, who looks on track to continue his solid run of form for Alpine.
Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg was just 0.04 seconds behind in sixth, and had Williams rookie Franco Colapinto 0.009 seconds in arrears.
Colapinto is one of several drivers competing this weekend without a seat lined up for 2025, with the others being Haas’s Kevin Magnissen, and Sauber duo Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou.
Magnussen was eighth, ahead of the first of the FP1 rookies Drugovich, and Perez, who completed the top ten.
Fernando Alonso was eleventh, just 0.059 seconds ahead of Lawson. Less than three-tenths separated the best efforts of positions five through 13, the last of which was claimed by Bottas.
Hirakawa pipped Hadjar, who drove Verstappen’s title-winning Red Bull, for 14th, with Guanyu, Iwasa, Leclerc, newly-promoted Alpine driver Jack Doohan, and Browning completing the field.
Formula 1 returns for FP2 at 2.00 am NZST, ahead of FP3 at 11.30 pm on Saturday and Qualifying at 3.00 am the next morning.
The season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix goes green at 2.00 am on Monday.
| 1st | Leclerc | 1:24.321 |
| 2nd | Norris | +0.221 |
| 3rd | Hamilton | +0.264 |
| 4th | Russell | +0.359 |
| 5th | Gasly | +0.168 |
| 6th | Hulkenberg | +0.040 |
| 7th | Colapinto | +0.009 |
| 8th | Magnussen | +0.062 |
| 9th | Drugovich | +0.027 |
| 10th | Perez | +0.012 |
| 11th | Alonso | +0.021 |
| 12th | Lawson | +0.059 |
| 13th | Bottas | +0.048 |
| 14th | Hirakawa | +0.263 |
| 15th | Hadjar | +0.003 |
| 16th | Guanyu | +0.044 |
| 17th | Iwasa | +0.200 |
| 18th | A. Leclerc | +0.058 |
| 19th | Doohan | +0.125 |
| 20th | Browning | +0.215 |
