Frenchman leads the way in Abu Dhabi Pierre Gasly claimed the top of the timesheets in this morning's free practice session in Abu Dhabi with a string of stunningly quick laps early in a cooler than usual session in the emirate, easily leading home McLaren test driver Stoffel Vandoorne and ART teammate Nobuharu Matsushita.
The Red Bull tester set a number of quickest laps before stopping the clocks at 1:49.349 a third of the way into the session for a time which was a second faster than the best time of last year's free practice: the reigning champion pushed hard but was chasing his rival all session long, Gasly seemingly able to improve his pace at will.Most of the field kept their powder dry ahead of this evening's qualifying, with very few drivers running off the track and no one finding the wall, to the relief of the mechanics all along the pitlane. As the temperatures crept up in the latter stages of the session there was little to bother the timesheets as most of the field concentrated on their race set ups.
Nevertheless behind the top three Alexander Rossi, Alex Lynn, Mitch Evans, Jordan King, Raffaele Marciello, Norman Nato and Arthur Pic rounded out the top ten and will be all looking to put on a show under lights in qualifying this evening.Yas Marina – Free Practice Driver Team Laptime Laps1. Pierre Gasly DAMS 1:49.349 192. Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:49.483 193. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:49.860 194. Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1:50.021 155. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:50.056 196. Mitch Evans RUSSIAN TIME 1:50.270 177. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:50.288 188. Raffaele Marciello Trident 1:50.390 209. Norman Nato Arden International 1:50.521 1510. Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:50.631 1911. André Negrao Arden International 1:50.680 1812. Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1:50.795 1713. Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 1:50.825 1914. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:51.048 1615. Sergio Canamasas Daiko Team Lazarus 1:51.057 1816. Dean Stoneman Carlin 1:51.070 1817. Rene Binder MP Motorsport 1:51.094 1818. Nicholas Latifi MP Motorsport 1:51.110 1819 Oliver Rowland Status Grand Prix 1:51.158 1720. Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 1:51.504 1821. Daniiel De Jong MP Motorsport 1:52.107 1722. Gustav Malja Rapax 1:52.873 1823. Sean Gelael Carlin 1:53.403 1824. Nathanaël Berthon Daiko Team Lazarus 1:53.876 5
