Hamilton faster than Rosberg in 1st 2 Abu Dhabi practices

Mercedes’ driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain leaves at the end of the first practice session.

The Briton headed title rival and Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg by 0.079 seconds in the second session at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina track, having been 0.374secs quicker in first practice on Friday.

What followed was a season in which Rosberg won four grands prix on the trot to seize control of the championship while Hamilton was plagued with reliability troubles. But, the more I think about it, the more that’s actually not as insane as it sounds.

Although Button has an option with McLaren for the 2018 season, he said on Thursday he does not expect to race again. However, it is worth noting that of the three practice sessions, FP1 and FP3 are the least representative as qualifying and the race take place later in the day at sunset. The title race then went in Hamilton’s favor only for Rosberg to seize the initiative back.

The defending three-time world champion clocked a best lap of one minute and 40.861 seconds to outpace the 31-year-old German by 0.079sec.

“So this is my last race and that’s the way I think about it at the moment”.

McLaren struggled with balance on Fernando Alonso’s auto, and Jenson Button (who has reverted to his yellow 2009 title-winning helmet design for his last F1 outing) had to creep back to the pits with mechanical gremlins.

Button started his F1 career with Williams, lining up in his first race at the 2000 Australian Grand Prix.

Great rivalries An edge of enmity has sharped the relationship between these once close friends Hamilton and Rosberg, so that theirs can now be counted among the great rivalries of Formula One, alongside Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, Niki Lauda and James Hunt and, above all others, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.

“In the long run I struggled a bit with the front end, maybe I was a bit too aggressive, but overall the auto felt good”.

“Maybe I should keep this private to myself, but I feel a certain way in my heart”, he said. You want great team spirit, everybody fighting for one direction and working together.

Hamilton also had engine failures in qualifying in early season races in China and Russian Federation, which meant he had to recover from positions down the grid.

Despite never managing to clinch the ultimate prize, Massa is held in the highest regard in the paddock, something that was demonstrated by the guard of honour to welcome him back to the pits after crashing out of the Brazilian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

“Yeah, it’s been a long journey. So I’m more relaxed”.

Some of the stars of that era will still grace the grid like Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, while Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg emerged that little bit later on but mixed it with the Buttons and Alonsos in a highly talented era of drivers.