Aussie Doohan escapes accident at Abu Dhabi GP practice

Australian Formula One hopeful Jack Doohan has had a narrow escape at practice in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

On a morning when George Russell went quickest for Mercedes, Alpine’s Doohan, son of former motorcycling great Mick Doohan, was one of the 10 would-be rookies given a chance to test out by their teams.

But the 20-year-old Queenslander was quickly given more than he bargained for on Friday when he had to swerve at the last moment to avoid the Williams of Logan Sargeant, who was summoned to stewards after the session for alleged erratic driving.

“Almost had the biggest accident of my life,” Doohan exclaimed over the team radio, to which he got the deadpan reply from his team: “Yeah, we saw that.”

Still clearly shocked, Doohan added, “Oh my God man!”, with the team replying: “It’s all right mate, don’t worry.”

Doohan finished 13th in the session on a morning when the teams fulfilled their season’s obligations to give track time to rookies, with some taking the chance to really shine.

For Red Bull, triple world champion Max Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez sat out the unrepresentative session, with Formula E champion Jake Dennis and French F2 driver Isack Hadjar taking their places.

Russell set the pace in one minute 26.072 seconds on the soft tyres, 0.288 faster than Aston Martin reserve Felipe Drugovich, also on softs.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo was third for AlphaTauri with Valtteri Bottas fourth for Alfa Romeo, Canadian Lance Stroll fifth for Aston Martin and Oscar Piastri, the other Aussie on the grid, sixth for McLaren.

The session meant little given that it was run in the afternoon heat while the race finishes after dark.

“This session is probably the least value session of the year because of the temperature and how it transitions later as the temperatures cool down,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told Sky Sports.

“For Jake making that jump from a Formula E car, no wonder he needed to tighten his helmet up after the first run because it’s a massive, massive step.

“I thought both of them acquitted themselves very well and we got a lot of very good data.”

Robert Shwartzman joined Drugovich as another rookie in the top 10, lapping eighth fastest for Ferrari and less than a tenth off Carlos Sainz’s time.

French driver Theo Pourchaire was 14th at the wheel of the second Alfa Romeo, Mexican Pato O’Ward 15th for McLaren and ahead of Dennis and Hadjar, who was forced to go off track to avoid hitting Stroll.

Britain’s Zak O’Sullivan took Alex Albon’s Williams and was 18th, with compatriot Oliver Bearman bringing up the rear for Haas.