F1 title battle balanced on knife edge after closely-fought practice

This year's already action-packed season of racing is set to end on another high note if the form shown by teams in Friday's practice sessions in Abu Dhabi is anything to go by, with title protanogists Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren all performing strongly on the opening day of track action for the season finale. There was just four tenths of a second separating the four title-challenging drivers, with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton leading the way on a time of 1m40.888s.

It was dry and warm throughout the second session this evening, as teams took the track for the second practice session of the day, with Hamilton's session-topping laptime coming on the hour mark before teams settled down to concentrate on race set-up work. The Briton's time was almost two seconds quicker than Vettel's quickest this morning, as track conditions improved and drivers continued to familiaris themselves with the circuit.