F1 News, Reports and Race Results

FP2: Hamilton picks up the pace after dark in Abu Dhabi

Lewis Hamilton took charge of second free practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, setting a new track record under the floodlights. The Mercedes was 0.149s faster than Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Free Practice 2 results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:37.877s		38
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:38.026s	+ 0.149s	36
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:38.180s	+ 0.303s	33
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:38.352s	+ 0.475s	34
5	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:38.537s	+ 0.660s	33
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:38.894s	+ 1.017s	33
7	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:39.323s	+ 1.446s	32
8	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:39.333s	+ 1.456s	35
9	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:39.529s	+ 1.652s	40
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:39.559s	+ 1.682s	27
11	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:39.635s	+ 1.758s	35
12	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:39.671s	+ 1.794s	30
13	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:40.201s	+ 2.324s	37
14	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:40.329s	+ 2.452s	29
15	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:40.694s	+ 2.817s	38
16	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:41.128s	+ 3.251s	30
17	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	1:41.270s	+ 3.393s	42
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:41.302s	+ 3.425s	39
19	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:41.496s	+ 3.619s	38
20	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:41.560s	+ 3.683s	12

The last rays of sunshine were casting the Yas Marina Circuit with a golden glow as the second 90-minute free practice session got underway. It meant that conditions were much closer now to those the drivers will face in qualifying and the race than they had been in FP1.

As twilight took hold, first into action was McLaren's Fernando Alonso followed by the two Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean. Kimi Raikkonen was also quick to join the fray, and the Ferrari duly went top with an early flying lap clocking in at 1:39.908s on supersofts.

Moments later Lewis Hamilton was in action, quickly driving the top time down to 1:38.912s. That was almost eight tenths faster than his Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas in the early running. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo split the two Silver Arrows, with Sebastian Vettel slipping into fourth just ahead of Raikkonen and Max Verstappen.

Stoffel Vandoorne was one of the few drivers to start the session on ultrasofts. However he lost the back end of the McLaren in the final corner and spun into the run-off area. Local yellows briefly prevailed while Vandoorne found a way to reboot the MCL32 and return to the pits with no great harm done.

Bottas changed over to the ultras and went top with a lap of 1:38.609s just before the half hour mark. Vettel soon bettered it, but almost immediately the top spot was back in Mercedes' hands as Hamilton responded with 1:37.877s, a new Yas Marina lap record.

Ricciardo's attempt to keep in touch was initially thwarted by Grosjean. The French driver subsequently spun under braking in the final corner while on his own flying lap. He also reported something smelling "super hot" in the cockpit. The car was ordered back to the pits, where it remained while the team commenced a lengthy check of the electronics.

Ricciardo did eventually get his fast lap in to go third. Attention then turned to distance runs, leaving Hamilton, Vettel and Ricciardo top of the times ahead of Raikkonen, Bottas and Verstappen. Next fastest were the two Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, followed by Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso rounding out the top ten.

Ricciardo continued to be unlucky with traffic, and was subsequently held up by Williams' Felipe Massa in the final quarter of an hour. His team mate Max Verstappen had a solo scare a few minutes later when he oversteered wide at the penultimate corner.

Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley looked to be struggling to get to grips with the circuit during FP2. He finished the session 19th fastest, having flat-spotted his tyres as he tried to catch a spin in the entry to turn 1.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.