Although the driver's title is still on the line, there was much talk going into the double points season finale about next year's driver shuffle. Ferrari finally announced the end of its relationship with Fernando Alonso, which also allowed them to confirm Sebastian Vettel for next year. Alonso is understood to join McLaren in 2015 but the official announcement has been pushed to December with the team still undecided which of its two drivers will be retained. It also looked like Caterham and Marussia would be back but only the former is in Abu Dhabi with Will Stephens taking the seat vacated by Marcus Ericcson.

As for the championship; Rosberg has a mountain to climb as leader Hamilton looks highly unlikely to finish any lower than second.

Quote Originally Posted by Practice 1
Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:43.476 32
2 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:43.609 0.133 31
3 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:45.184 1.708 22
4 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:45.334 1.858 30
5 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:45.361 1.885 23
6 25 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 1:45.718 2.242 17
7 26 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 1:45.835 2.359 32
8 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1:45.913 2.437 8
9 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1:45.983 2.507 23
10 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:46.030 2.554 24
11 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1:46.049 2.573 23
12 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:46.131 2.655 23
13 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:46.549 3.073 7
14 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1:46.556 3.080 28
15 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1:46.711 3.235 31
16 31 Esteban Ocon Lotus-Renault 1:47.066 3.590 29
17 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:47.235 3.759 8
18 10 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1:47.971 4.495 24
19 37 Adderly Fong Sauber-Ferrari 1:48.269 4.793 25
20 46 Will Stevens Caterham-Renault 1:50.684 7.208 14