Button tops first practice at Abu Dhabi

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuitae

Jenson Button topped the first practice session in preparation of Sunday's Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi. The Brit went faster than Mark Webber while his teammate Lewis Hamilton set the third fastest time. World Champion Sebastian Vettel is 4th fastest, ahead of both Ferrari drivers.

Early on, Felipe Massa struggled with his front wing again and saw the right hand side scrape on the ground. Rubens Barrichello meanwhile lost power on the back straight and saw his session end prematurely.

By the halfway mark, many drivers had spun off the track without car damage. Felipe Massa was a notable one as he lost control of his car and slid sideways along a large part of the run-off area, thereby badly flat-spotting a new set of Pirelli's experimental option tyres. Since Felipe's earlier medium set was damaged by stones, the Brazilian then awaited until the final minutes to have another go.

5 minutes after his teammate, Fernando has a little off in turn 5 as he braked too late and the rear end stepped out. He could however easily return to the track after using the reverse gear.

Several drivers also intentionally ran off-track, going wide through turns 8 and 9 during their in-laps. It allows them to prevent some heavy braking, thereby reducing tyre and brake wear.

Two minutes from the end of the session, Vitaly Petrov's car is pulled into the garage with a smoking left sidepod. Hopefully for him that is not an engine failure.

Results

Pos.No.DriverTeamTimeGapLaps
14Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1:40.263-21
22Mark WebberRbr-Renault1:40.3890.12626
33Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1:40.4030.14027
41Sebastian VettelRbr-Renault1:40.7550.49227
55Fernando AlonsoFerrari1:40.8010.53825
66Felipe MassaFerrari1:41.2600.99717
714Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1:41.3401.07723
88Nico RosbergMercedes1:42.1301.86726
915Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1:42.1511.88828
1019Jaime AlguersuariStr-Ferrari1:42.3772.11426
1118Jean-Eric VergneStr-Ferrari1:42.6332.37026
129Romain GrosjeanRenault1:42.6852.42229
1310Vitaly PetrovRenault1:43.1182.85513
1412Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1:43.2552.99229
157Michael SchumacherMercedes1:43.3893.12624
1617Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1:44.4124.14928
1716Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1:44.4844.22118
1820Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1:44.5654.30227
1921Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1:44.8984.63525
2023Vitantonio LiuzziHrt-Cosworth1:46.3856.12228
2122Daniel RicciardoHrt-Cosworth1:46.5326.26927
2224Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1:48.0247.76120
2325Robert WickensVirgin-Cosworth1:48.5518.28823
2411Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-CosworthNo time-3