McLaren’s Jenson Button topped first free practice for Sunday’s 2011 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with a best time of 1 minute 40.263 seconds in the 90-minute session at Yas Marina Circuit.

Button, twice a third-place finisher here, led Red Bull’s Mark Webber by just over a tenth of a second, with the second McLaren of Lewis Hamilton third-quickest ahead of race favourite and World Champion Sebastian Vettel in the #1 Red Bull.

Two talking-points emerged. Both Williams drivers had engine trouble, Pastor Maldonado using a new Cosworth unit, his ninth of the year and therefore incurring a 10-place grid penalty because he has exceeded the eight-engine rule, while Rubens Barrichello suffered what team members called a ‘catastrophic failure’ after just three laps and will have a new engine for the second session.

The other talking-point was the apparent clumsiness of both Ferraris round the 5.554km circuit, with Felipe Massa enduring a lurid slide through Turn 1 just on the hour mark and Fernando Alonso taking several escape roads and off-track lines.

Three new ‘Friday drivers’ appeared for this session: GP2 champion Romain Grosjean in the second Renault instead of Bruno Senna, Red Bull Junior driver Jean-Eric Vergne in the Toro Rosso usually driven by Sébastien Buemi, and Canadian Robert Wickens in Jérôme D’Ambrosio’s Marussia Virgin.

 

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