Yas Marina FP1: Hamilton ahead of Rosberg as the rest chase

Despite making it quite clear that he was not happy with his car, Lewis Hamilton nevertheless blitzed to the top of the timing sheets in the opening FP1 session of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend at the five star Yas Marina Circuit.

Hamilton first complained about his seat position and then declared "The car's not feeling good."

Nevertheless the Mercedes, in the hands of the reigning F1 world champion, was good for a lap time of 1:43.754, which was 0.141 of a second up on his Silver Arrows teammate Nico Rosberg, setting the stage for what should be an intriguing duel between the two - both keen to end the season on a high.

Kimi Räikkönen was third quickest for Ferrari, though the Finn ended the session seven tenths of a second adrift of Hamilton’s time.

Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat was fourth, almost a full second behind Hamilton, while fifth-placed Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari and Force India’s sixth-placed Nico Hulkenberg were the only other driver to get within a second of Hamilton’s benchmark.

Kvyat’s Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo finished in seventh place, ahead of Sergio Perez in the second Force India. Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado was the ninth quickest man and the top 10 order was completed by Williams’ Felipe Massa.

The session was incident-free but there was trouble for Lotus’ reserve Jolyon Palmer.

The Briton, who will race for the team in 2016, had been pencilled in for a full session in place of Romain Grosjean but with the team experiencing delays to its car build programme, Palmer was only able to take to track in the final 10 minutes of the session.

He completed just eight laps for a best time of 1:46.501, more than two and half seconds off the P1 time.

[highlight ]Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Yas Marina Circuit - Free Practice 1[/highlight]