Grosjean leads Hamilton in first practice

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix first practice

Posted on

| Written by

Romain Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton kept Sebastian Vettel from the top of the times in the first practice session.

On a hot track, with surface temperatures exceeding 45C, Grosjean set a quickest time of 1’44.241 on his final run with less than two minutes to go.

Mercedes and Red Bull traded the quickest times for most of the session, with Hamilton leading the way for much of the running.

Vettel was third, just over a quarter of a second off Lotus’s pace, and had a near-miss when he returned to the pits at the end of the session. Seemingly caught out by the slippery surface in the pits the Red Bull driver locked his wheels and knocked a tyre over, stopping just short of hitting his pit crew.

Their team mates lined up behind them with Paul di Resta next in seventh place as Force India continue to show signs of having regained their early season form.

Jenson Button was eighth for McLaren but was concerned about their traction as the session began. “Wow, we really have no grip at all,” he exclaimed after sliding in the final sector as he set his first lap time.

Team mate Sergio Perez, who was first to set a time after half an hour of running, was tenth quickest behind Pastor Maldonado.

Both Ferraris ended the first 90 minutes of running outside the top ten, Fernando Alonso 12th and Felipe Massa only 17th.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
18Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’44.24121
210Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’44.4330.19223
31Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’44.4990.25818
42Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’44.7120.47120
59Nico RosbergMercedes1’44.7410.50024
67Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’44.9290.68823
714Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’45.0400.79920
85Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’45.0990.85820
916Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’45.1500.90924
106Sergio PerezMcLaren1’45.3311.09020
1111Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’45.3781.13723
123Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’45.4401.19918
1317Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’45.8231.58222
1415James CaladoForce India-Mercedes1’45.9241.68320
1512Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’46.0681.82718
1618Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’46.1141.87322
174Felipe MassaFerrari1’46.1241.88318
1819Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’46.1261.88521
1920Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’47.6003.35922
2021Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault1’47.6703.42922
2122Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’47.7233.48223
2223Rodolfo GonzalezMarussia-Cosworth1’49.5655.32422

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Browse all 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix articles

Image © Lotus/LAT

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

27 comments on “Grosjean leads Hamilton in first practice”

  1. Why are they about a second of last years pace?
    Seems quite alot…

    1. @alexanderfin track and weather conditions?

      Or maybe the changes to the track affected the laptime, somehow.

    2. @alexanderfin @fer-no65 The DRS difference may be having quite an effect – they’ve only got it for parts of the two straights now, before they would have used it out of turns 1, 14, 19 and 21 as well.

      1. Yes the DRS, but still at most tracks the pace has been better this year…

        1. ’cause Yas Marina has not many high-speed corners.

  2. Gonzalez is 1.8 second behind Bianchi…

    1. @francorchamps17 is this the end of the great Max Chilton… Btw if Max Chilton manages to keep his 100% record till the end of this season, I will actually vote for him in the DotW

      1. Tiago Monteiro and Heikki Kovalainen were pretty close, especially the latter; it’s a pity he retired at the last race from mechanical issues… he would have been the first rookie to finish all the races in his debut season otherwise. Chilton may yet be the first :P

  3. I thought Pedro de la Rosa was suppose to fill in for Hulkenberg this weekend

    1. @william According to who?

      1. There were reports that Nico Hulkenberg was sick from food poisoning yesterday but it seems he is ok now as Pedro was only there to see if Sauber needed him this weekend

        1. I saw these reports aswell.

  4. Mercedes seemed to have some understeer in the beginning, but then they fixed it and went very quick. They’re definitly in for a podium this weekend, id say.

  5. Hmm, Di Resta P7. Are Force India regaining their early season form? Or will it all play out in FP2 in cooler conditions, where there may be issues with tyre warm up for Force India?

  6. Fikri Harish (@)
    1st November 2013, 11:31

    Missed this one because I had some work to do.
    Is there any explanation for the Ferrari’s apparent lack of pace or is that indeed a cause for concern?

    The gap seems pretty close from 1st to 12th, hopefully Vettel will finally get some challenge this weekend even though I kinda hope that he can keep his streak going until the end of the season.

    1. It was a very boring session, no action during the first 30 minutes.

  7. Lewis is usually monstrous around here . Bring it on !!

  8. Nice to see that FOM have finally been able to use the moveable in-car camera.

    They have had them for a while now but were not able to use them due to teams refusing to let them mount them as they tended to be larger/heavier.
    They have trialed them on the Porsche’s a couple times but never F1.

    Seems they have a new smaller & I guess lighter camera unit which has seen Ferrari agree to let them use it, For 1st practice at least. Don’t know if it will stay on the car for the rest of the weekend or it its now trial over & back to the static cameras.

    1. I think they’re useless.. More for showing off the cars than the racing.. It’s just confusing with them rotating around instead of being fixed in the line of the car imo.. Don’t like them. Stupid gimmick

      1. +1 thank you, multiple fixed cameras on a car is far superior.

  9. Oh no, not the ‘first lap nutcase’ again.. C’mon Kimi

    1. If by First-Lap Nutcase, you mean the guy who has been consistently quick as of late, being the second highest points scorer in the past 3 races (only behind the 4 times world champion)…

      Then, yes… Oh no, he’s actually becoming a very good driver!

      The bloke’s been mostly trouble free throughout the year, give him some slack, geez…

  10. On one hand, I really wouldn’t be surprised if it happened. On the other, it’s still possible for him to overtake Alonso for 2nd in the drivers championship and he has the car to do it.

  11. I’m surprised Calado took part in this session given that he is also racing in GP2 this weekend – I thought this wasn’t allowed?

  12. Put Grosjean and Ricciardo in a same F1 team and you’ll get a team with 24/7 smiles. :D

  13. Grosjean appears to be the man to beat Vettel.

Comments are closed.