Hamilton fastest in Abu Dhabi practice

Abu Dhabi: McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton has set the fastest time in Friday's opening practice for this weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

With the majority of the field doing more than 20 laps as they gathered experience on the new Yas Marina circuit, Hamilton set a time of 1 minute, 43.939 seconds to better Formula One champion Jenson Button of Brawn GP by a tenth of a second.

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel was third fastest, ahead of Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello and BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld.

Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi was sixth, ahead of Force India's Adrian Sutil and Red Bull's Mark Webber.