Practice report
Formula 1
Mercedes shows competitiveness on Friday practice in Abu Dhabi
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton completed a total of 125 laps today, equivalent to more than two race distances.
Published: Nov 1, 2013, 4:12 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Lewis Hamilton (Practice 1: 23 laps, 1:44.433, P2 / Practice 2: 37 laps, 1:41.690, P3): "Today was a fairly standard Friday programme for us, although the second session is always more valuable here as it's so much more reflective of the race conditions.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W04
Photo by: XPB Images
As the temperatures cool down, the characteristics of the car change and you get an increase in understeer, so the main challenge is to try and pre-empt the set-up that you're going to need.
Physically it gets easier when the sun goes down but you don't even notice the visibility change as they do such a good job of lighting the track. A decent start today but there's a lot of work ahead of us over the weekend and we'll give it everything we can as always."
Nico Rosberg (Practice 1: 24 laps, 1:44.741, P5 / Practice 2: 41 laps, 1:41.758, P5): "We didn't learn a great deal during the first practice session today as it was so hot and we won't have those conditions in qualifying or the race. I struggled a little on the option tyres but was able to find a better rhythm when we switched to the primes.
It should be an interesting race from a strategy perspective as the tyres seem to be right on the limit of one or two stops. Our aim is to be the best of the rest again which I'm quite confident we can achieve and score some important points."
Ross Brawn: "It was an interesting Friday, covering the full range of track conditions and the circuit changed quite considerably in the cooler temperatures this evening. We had to follow those developments carefully with the car set-up and the balance in order to get the most out of our running.
Lewis had a differential control issue in the second session which hampered him somewhat, although we managed to recover the situation during his running. Otherwise, we tried to maximise our time out on track in order to learn as much as possible about the tyres, especially in the most representative race conditions this evening."
Toto Wolff: "We completed our programme today with few issues and both drivers seemed reasonably happy with the car. We made some positive changes between the first and second practice sessions and the drivers and engineers will be working hard overnight to find more performance. The car seems quite competitive but there are a lot of quick cars out there and I am sure it will be very close tomorrow."
Mercedes AMG Petronas
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Vettel moves back to the top in Abu Dhabi
Next article Vettel Sets The Pace In Abu Dhabi, as Mercedes and Lotus offer challenge
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Ross Brawn
What made Ross Brawn an F1 legend
Autosport Awards
Autosport Awards 9 mo
What made Ross Brawn an F1 legend
Promoted: Ross Brawn on moving the sport forwards for fans
Formula 1
Formula 1 Oct 31, 2019
Promoted: Ross Brawn on moving the sport forwards for fans
Brawn is wrong over potential F1 electric move, says Agag
Formula 1
Formula 1 Aug 10, 2018
Brawn is wrong over potential F1 electric move, says Agag
More from
Mercedes
Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella
Formula 1
Formula 1 4 h
Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella
Latest news
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
12 min
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
2 h
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far
Formula E
FE Formula E 4 h
2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far
Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 4 h
Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe