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          Rosberg vs. Hamilton: Advantage Hamilton after Friday practice

          • Laurence Edmondson
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            Laurence Edmondson
            Senior Writer, F1
              • Joined ESPN in 2009
              • An FIA accredited F1 journalist since 2011
          • Nate Saunders
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            Nate Saunders
            Senior Writer, F1
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          Nov 24, 2016, 12:31 PM

          YAS MARINA, Abu Dhabi -- Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton are fighting for the world championship this weekend. ESPN will be keeping track of both men's interactions with the press, social media and track performances to build up to Sunday's grand prix showdown. (Local times displayed)

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          Friday

          19:15 - Laurence Edmondson
          Toto Wolff is facing questions about Hamilton's comments regarding Mercedes' decision this year to mix up its mechanics from the two sides of the garage (see below). He makes it very clear that he made the decision based on what was right for the F1 team's 1,500 employees and not what was right for Hamilton alone. Mercedes has always maintained that the switch was carried out to stop the garage splitting into two cliques behind each driver. It seems as though this is a touchy issue between Mercedes and Hamilton and we may not have heard the end of it just yet ...

          19:00 - Laurence Edmondson
          The F1 track action for the day is done and dusted. The gap between Hamilton and Rosberg in the crucial second session (the only one held in the same conditions as qualifying and the race) was just 0.079s in Hamilton's favour, suggesting we're in for a close battle. Red Bull was over half a second off the pace of the Mercedes on one-lap pace, but looked very competitive over long runs. A bad start for either Rosberg or Hamilton could see them struggle in the race if they fall behind on the run down to Turn 1.

          14:30 - Laurence Edmondson
          Advantage Hamilton after FP1 ... although it must be said it's a fairly irrelevant advantage at this stage. First practice in Abu Dhabi is one of the least useful practice sessions of the year. The conditions are way hotter (due to the sun being up) than qualifying or the race, which are held as the sun is setting. Hamilton set his best time on the softs, Rosberg on the ultra-softs, but again that discrepancy is not unusual for an FP1 session. FP2 should give a much better indication, but Hamilton can take some encouragement from the two Red Bulls being roughly a tenth off Rosberg's best effort. If Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo can finish between him and Rosberg on Sunday, that is Hamilton's most obvious route to a fourth title.

          13:30 - Nate Saunders
          Hamilton becomes the first of the Mercedes drivers to spin this weekend -- swapping ends on the exit of Turn 5 after a long run on the ultra-soft tyre. An easy thing to do on Pirelli's softest compound after that many laps, especially on a track still lacking grip at this stage of the weekend.

          13:00 - Nate Saunders
          Rosberg leaves the garage ahead of the first practice session of the biggest F1 weekend of his career.

          Thursday

          22:00 - Nate Saunders
          Nico Rosberg is feeling the love from local fans this weekend. The championship leader had quite a contingent of fans in the paddock today...

          20:00 - Nate Saunders
          Lots of chatter in the paddock about the press conference, and notably a lot of difference in opinion towards Hamilton's demeanor and attitude throughout. Some thought he was in a bad mood -- especially early on -- while others claimed he was on good form, smiling and joking throughout the session. The pair did talk highly of the respect in their relationship, with Hamilton even going as far as saying he is proud of what his old karting friend has achieved in recent seasons. There were also a few moments of light-hearted humour between them, which hasn't always been the case in 2016.

          18:15 - Laurence Edmondson
          On a Thursday the FOM camera men get a bit of practice in watching the safety car and medical car put their sighter laps in. For reasons I've never really understood, the action of the two Mercedes road cars is beamed into the media centre for us to watch. However, this week's edition of Thursday's track action happened to pan away to the Mercedes team garage where we saw Toto Wolff addressing a packed garage of Mercedes mechanics and engineers in what looked like a motivational speech ahead of the first practice day tomorrow. Anyway, the screens are now showing safety car driver Bernd Maylander hold an impressive slide coming out of the Turn 7 hairpin.

          17:30 - Laurence Edmondson

          Everyone loves an Abu Dhabi sunset ...

          17:00 - Laurence Edmondson
          Although the pair spend a lot of time in the same engineering room, it's rare that Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg attend the same press conference. In many ways their answers mirrored their approaches this season. While Rosberg stuck to the same well-worn mantra of taking it one race at a time and not thinking about the title (even when just one race remains on which the title rests), Hamilton was laid back and willing to further from the script in his responses.

          The most obvious example followed a long but quite pointed question about Mercedes' decision to swap five mechanics between the two sides of the garage at the start of the year. While Rosberg talked about "team spirit" and "everybody pulling in the same direction", Hamilton clearly still feels there was more to the decision than reached the media as he told the press to wait for a future autobiography to learn the truth behind the decision. When it hits the shelves at the end of his career it will be an interesting read!

          Undoubtedly the pressure is on Rosberg, but he seems to be handling it well. A couple of Hamilton's answers resulted in raised eyebrows or a sideways glance, but other than that he is dealing with the magnitude of the event well.

          16:00 -Nate Saunders
          Facing the media for the first time ahead of the weekend and on their own, Rosberg and Hamilton make their way in together and immediately sit on the front row. The press conference host asks if they will stand and shake hands for the photographers in attendance. Neither man proffers their hand to the other, while Rosberg verbally says he does not want to.

          The two men lightened up as the press conference continued...

          Wednesday

          To be updated throughout the weekend.