Lotus’s Romain Grosjean carried his brilliant recent run of form into Abu Dhabi as he topped the first practice session at the Yas Marina Circuit on Friday afternoon.
The Frenchman clocked a 1m 44.241s lap late in the session to bump Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton into second and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel into third. The top three drivers were followed by their teammates in reverse order Mark Webber being fourth Nico Rosberg fifth and Kimi Raikkonen sixth.
Both Ferraris were outside of top ten at more than 1 second of the pace and if they will continue to show this pace during the qualifying session tomorrow and race on Sunday they look set to lose the third place in the championship to Lotus as well.
| Pos. | Drivers | Teams | Time | Laps |
| 01. |  Romain Grosjean |
Lotus F1 | 1:44.241 | 21 |
| 02. |  Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes AMG Petronas | 1:44.433 | 23 |
| 03. |  Sebastian Vettel |
Red Bull Racing | 1:44.499 | 18 |
| 04. |  Mark Webber |
Red Bull Racing | 1:44.712 | 20 |
| 05. | Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes AMG Petronas | 1:44.741 | 24 |
| 06. |  Kimi Raikkonen |
Lotus F1 | 1:44.929 | 23 |
| 07. | Paul di Resta |
Sahara Force India | 1:45.040 | 20 |
| 08. | Jenson Button |
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 1:45.099 | 20 |
| 09. |  Pastor Maldonado |
Williams F1 | 1:45.150 | 24 |
| 10. |  Sergio Perez |
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 1:45.331 | 20 |
| 11. | Nico Hulkenberg |
Sauber F1 | 1:45.378 | 23 |
| 12. |  Fernando Alonso |
Scuderia Ferrari | 1:45.440 | 18 |
| 13. | Valtteri Bottas |
Williams F1 | 1:45.823 | 22 |
| 14. | James Calado |
Sahara Force India | 1:45.924 | 20 |
| 15. | Esteban Gutiérrez |
Sauber F1 | 1:46.068 | 18 |
| 16. | Jean-Eric Vergne |
Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:46.114 | 22 |
| 17. |  Felipe Massa |
Scuderia Ferrari | 1:46.124 | 18 |
| 18. | Daniel Ricciardo |
Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:46.126 | 21 |
| 19. | Charles Pic |
Caterham F1 Team | 1:47.600 | 22 |
| 20. | Heikki Kovalainen |
Caterham F1 Team | 1:47.670 | 22 |
| 21. | Jules Bianchi |
Marussia F1 | 1:47.723 | 23 |
| 22. | Rodolfo Gonzales |
Marussia F1 | 1:49.565 | 22 |
