Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in the opening practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but faces a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race.
The Ferrari driver will start ten places lower on the grid where he qualifies after the team confirmed that they had to change the battery pack on his SF-24.
That will put further pressure on the team as they try to overcome rivals McLaren to win the constructors’ championship.
Several drivers sat out the opening practice session of the weekend to allow inexperienced drivers to fulfil their team’s obligations for the season. Max Verstappen sat out to allow F2 championship contender Isack Hadjar to run in his car, with Carlos Sainz Jnr allowing Leclerc’s younger brother Arthur to drive his Ferrari.
World Endurance Champion Ryo Hirakawa stepped into Oscar Piastri’sMcLaren, with Felipe Drugovich taking over Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin. Ayumu Iwasa and Luke Browning were the final two drivers given a run out, in place of Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon, respectively.
Although the younger Leclerc brother was quickly out on track to take advantage of his first opportunity to participate in a grand prix session, the older sibling was stuck in the garage for half an hour with Ferrari working to fire up his car after changing his energy store. Eventually, Leclerc got out with half the session gone, but made up for lost time by setting the quickest time of the hour with a 1’24.321.
Lando Norris was second quickest, two tenths slower than the Ferrari, with the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell behind. Pierre Gasly was fifth, the stewards noting but then disregarding a potential incident in which he appeared not to have slowed for yellow flags. Nico Hulkenberg, Franco Colapinto, Kevin Magnussenm Drugovich and Sergio Perez completed the top ten.
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Hirakawa was 14th ahead of Hadjar, with Iwasa 16th ahead of Arthur Leclerc. Debutant Jack Doohan was 19th with Browning slowest of all. Hamilton and Norris will be summoned to the stewards after the session for an incident where the McLaren appeared to impede the Mercedes at the final corner, while Browning was shown the black and white flag for being deemed to have impeded Hadjar multiple times.
Williams confirmed their drivers will have five-place grid penalties as a result of exceeding the maximum number of gearbox components on their cars.
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix first practice…
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