Tied for the Championship With One Race Left, Hamilton and Verstappen Split Friday Practices in Abu Dhabi

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It’s a neck-and-neck battle as the season goes down to the wire.


ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates—In preparation for Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi GP, Lewis Hamilton had the best time of the day, a 1:23:691 pace, which put him ahead of the surprising Esteban Ocon in his Alpine. Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, was third in his last race before moving from Mercedes to Alfa Romeo.

Formula One’s final practice session ended in a disappointing way for Kimi Raikkonen, who was competing in his final race weekend. The Finn crashed into the barriers at turn 14. But the good news is that Raikkonen was unhurt. The incident shortened the session, which assured that Hamilton would have the best time.

Leading up to the Raikkonen accident, there were no major incidents. However, Nicholas Latifi spun his Williams at Turn 13 early in the evening session and had to return to the pits for a rear wing change. Bottas flat-spotted his tires as he approached turn eight and had to return for additional rubber.

In comparison to his championship rival, Max Verstappen, Hamilton was three places ahead going into tomorrow’s Free Practice 3 (5a Eastern time, ESPN2) and the evening’s qualifying session (8a Eastern time, ESPN2). Hamilton is six-tenths of a second ahead of the Dutchman, who placed fourth in Free Practice 2, after taking first in Friday’s Free Practice 1.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was fifth, and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso took sixth. Yuki Tsunoda, who has improved in the last few races was, placed his Alpha Tauri in seventh. Ferrari followed in a manner consistent with what it has been doing all year–with both drivers close to one another. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. took eighth and ninth, respectively, while the second Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten.

The race will be televised Sunday morning on ESPN2 beginning at 8a Eastern.

About Mark Gero

Mark began his addiction to Formula 1 racing watching races on the television at Watkins Glen and attending Grand Prix races in person at Long Beach, California in the 1970s and early 80s. Turning to the journalism side of motorsports in 2001, Mark started by writing Grand Prix weekend stories for San Diego, California based All-Sports under Jerry Preeper. He left one year later for E-Sports in Florida. Mark’s big break came when he wrote for the late Mike Hollander at Racing Services. Then, in 2010, he joined Racingnation for three seasons. For the remaining part of this decade, Mark continued to advance, writing articles for the Munich Eye Newspaper in Munich, Germany, and returning to the U.S. to finish his degree in Journalism and Mass Communications at Ashford University. After graduating, Mark was hired by Autoweek before moving on to the racing website, Frontstretch, until late last year. Mark currently lives in Los Angeles, California.



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