Bottas tops opening day of Abu Dhabi post-season test

Valtteri Bottas headed the field on the opening day of Formula 1's post-season test running at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi as teams experimented with Pirelli's proposed tyres for the 2020 season.

Enjoying his final run-out behind the wheel of the Mercedes W10 car, Bottas completed 138 laps en route to the head of the timesheets on Tuesday, setting a fastest lap time of 1m37.124s to finish more than eight-tenths of a second clear of the field.

Bottas was followed in second place by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who also racked up over two race distances, finishing the day with 136 laps on the board in the Ferrari SF90.

Daniil Kvyat took third place for Toro Rosso, two-tenths of a second further back as he split running for the team with Formula 2 driver Sean Gelael. Gelael ended the day down in P11, 3.5 seconds off Kvyat's time.

Sergio Perez finished the day fourth-fastest for Racing Point ahead of Romain Grosjean and Lando Norris, while Max Verstappen took seventh place for Red Bull.

In his first outing for Renault in more than three years, Esteban Ocon took eighth place as he bedded in with the team ahead of his full-time race driver role through 2020. Ocon will continue to adjust to the team with further running on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.

George Russell finished the day ninth for Williams, having completed the morning session before handing over to Roy Nissany for the afternoon. Nissany finished over four seconds off Russell's time in the FW42 during his maiden F1 outing, propping up the timesheets.

Kimi Raikkonen finished the day P10 for Alfa Romeo, with his running coming to an early end due to a technical issue.

The second and final day of the post-season test in Abu Dhabi will take place on Wednesday.