As the title deciding race of the 2014 Formula One World Championship got underway at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, championship leader Lewis Hamilton seized the early initiative by taking top spot in the opening practice session.

The Briton recorded a lap of 1:43.476 to finish 0.133s ahead of title rival Nico Rosberg. Hamilton enters the weekend 17 points ahead of Rosberg, who has to win the race to stand any chance of winning the title. However, should Rosberg win, Hamilton could finish second and still take the title.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who yesterday confirmed that he is to quit the team at the end of the season, finished a distant third, 1.7 seconds behind pacesetter Hamilton.

The gap back to third place might have less had Williams’ running not been cut short when both its cars suffered identical body work failures.

Felipe Mass completed just seven laps before part of his FW36’s right sidepod came loose and he was forced back to the pits. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas, with one more lap on the board, suffered the same issue. Neither car would run again in the session, with the team later blaming a new cooling configuration for the issue.

Behind Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, who was yesterday confirmed as the Spaniard’s replacement at Ferrari, finished fourth ahead of Red Bull Racing team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric Vergne were sixth and seventh respectively for Toro Rosso, while Bottas’ best time was still good enough for eighth place, albeit nearly 2.5s down on Hamilton’s lap. Sergio Perez finished ninth ahead of Force India team-mate Nico Hulkenberg.

Several young drivers made their grand prix weekend debut in the session. FIA Formula 3 European Championship winner Esteban Ocon was handed a drive at Lotus for the session, replacing Romain Grosjean. Ocon finished the session in 16^th place, immediately behind Maldonado and a respectable three tenths of a second adrift of the experience Venezuelan.

GP3 racer Adderly Fong took over Adrian Sutil’s Sauber and set the day’s 19th fastest time, 4.7s off the pace.

The troubled Caterham team returned to grand prix weekend action for the first time since the Russian Grand Prix with race regular Kamui Kobayashi finishing 18^th. The team handed a debut to Will Stevens, who finished this years Formula Renault 3.5 championship in sixth place. The young Briton’s first F1 session was a frustrating experience after he experienced technical problems on his first lap and returned to the garage. He eventually returned to the fray in the closing stages of the session, but with little time available to exploire the car’s limits Stevens finished last and seven seconds off the pace.

2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:43.476 32
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:43.609 0.133 31
3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:45.184 1.708 22
4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:45.334 1.858 30
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:45.361 1.885 23
6 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 1:45.718 2.242 17
7 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 1:45.835 2.359 32
8 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1:45.913 2.437 8
9 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1:45.983 2.507 23
10 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:46.030 2.554 24
11 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1:46.049 2.573 23
12 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:46.131 2.655 23
13 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:46.549 3.073 7
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1:46.556 3.080 28
15 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1:46.711 3.235 31
16 Esteban Ocon Lotus-Renault 1:47.066 3.590 29
17 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:47.235 3.759 8
18 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1:47.971 4.495 24
19 Adderly Fong Sauber-Ferrari 1:48.269 4.793 25
20 Will Stevens Caterham-Renault 1:50.684 7.208 14