Max Verstappen led team-mate Daniel Ricciardo as Red Bull secured a one-two at the top of the timesheet in FP1 ahead of the Formula 1 season finale in Abu Dhabi.
While Mercedes and Ferrari opted not to run the hypersoft tyre during a short run in the 90-minute practice session, Red Bull’s drivers propelled themselves to the top of the times on the softest compound.
Verstappen, who occupied top spot after the first 40 minutes of the session, reduced his benchmark by over 0.8s with a 1m38.491s.
On his second lap on the tyre the Dutchman suffered a snap of oversteer at Turn 6, narrowly avoiding the wall on the outside.
Ricciardo finished 0.454s adrift of his team-mate. His best time included a session-best effort through the final sector, where a new-for-2018 orange sausage kerb at the exit of Turn 20 was utilised by almost every driver during the session.
The Mercedes duo of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton ended up third and fourth. Bottas ran the supersoft tyres and improved to vault ahead of his team-mate later in the session.
Hamilton struggled with understeer on his ultrasoft tyres and complained of “no grip”, running wide on multiple occasions during his session-best lap. He duly finished 1.052s adrift of pacesetter Verstappen.
Reigning champion Hamilton ran with the #1 displayed on the vanity panel of his Mercedes, albeit being entered into the weekend as #44 and still displaying his traditional number on the engine cover.
Esteban Ocon and Kevin Magnussen both finished ahead of the Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, as the Scuderia did not complete any short-run speed evaluations.
Carlos Sainz Jr ended the session in ninth for Renault. He lost control at the tight Turn 18 late in the session, causing himself to spin backwards into the barriers. He was able to recover to the pits.
There was also late drama at Toro Rosso as Pierre Gasly returned to the pits with a small fire at the back of his car after the team had recognised overheating. The Red Bull-bound driver finished 11th on the timesheet.
Antonio Giovinazzi earned another FP1 outing at Sauber ahead of his 2019 race seat. He used to hypersoft tyres to lap quicker than team-mate Marcus Ericsson, who had a spin at Turn 1 early on. The Swede clipped the inside wall with his nose and had to limp back to the pits.
The Sauber duo finished 16th and 17th ahead of the McLarens and Williams’ Robert Kubica. The Pole, who will drive for the team alongside George Russell next season, completed experimental work in FP1 and ended up 20th.
