Leclerc and Norris top red flag-hit FP2 in Abu Dhabi

Charles Leclerc ended second practice in Abu Dhabi on top of the timesheets, the Ferrari driver's best lap of 1:24.809s clocking in less than half a hundredth of a second ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris.

Max Verstappen was third quickest ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez and George Russell, but drivers had less than half an hour of track time after two red flags for accidents making the times largely unrepresentative.

Just as happened in Vegas, Carlos Sainz had another nightmare start to his weekend with an early heavy crash after he spun off into the barrier at turn 3, with Nico Hulkenberg also spinning out when the session got back underway.

• 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Free Practice 2 results

Seven days on since F1's maiden outing in Las Vegas, drivers were back in the desert - albeit this time half way around the world in Bahrain for the final F1 Grand Prix of 2023. As the cars streamed out on track to get second practice underway, the sun was still in the sky albeit low on the horizon as dusk approached.

For half the drivers this was their first time in action this weekend, after FP1 saw a record ten of them giving up their seats to young drivers to meet F1's rules. Mercedes' George Russell had been one of those previously out on track, taking the opportunity to claim the top spot for the one-hour session

Russell was quick to go top again in the early evening session in Bahrain with a time of 1:25.906s on mediums. It put him half a second ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen, all of whom had likewise been able to get used to the circuit earlier on. Neither Red Bull driver had been in action yet, so it wasn't long before Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were setting off to get their weekends rolling.

Before either could set a true flying lap time, the red flags were out for Carlos Sainz hitting the barrier hard at the right-hander turn 3 after running into the dirty air from the back of a slower AlphaTauri and then hitting a bump in the corner. The car was heavily damaged; Sainz climbed out unaided but was dispatched to the medical centre for a check-up as a matter of form.

The session resumed after repairs to the barrier took over 20 minutes, with the clock continuing to run down throughout. The loss of time was significant as FP2 is the only session to take place at dusk which is when qualifying and the race itself both take place on Saturday and Sunday respectively, rather than the full sunshine and heat of mid-afternoon for FP1 and FP3.

Given the lack of running time so far, everyone was keen to get underway with a long queue forming on pit lane, many going straight out on soft tyres. Other than Sainz, the only driver to opt out initially was Russell. The Haas cars were out first, and moments later it was one of them - Hulkenberg - who trigged a second red flag by taking too much kerb exiting turn 1 and spinning off into the wall, damaging the rear of the VF-25 as it collected an advertising hoarding along the way.

The impact hadn't been as big as that for Sainz, and the session resumed with 16 minutes to go. By now the sun was out of the picture and the floodlights were fully in effect as drivers opted for a mix of soft and medium tyres to try and cram in both race and qualifying simulations. Verstappen was in such a hurry that he found a tight gap between the two Mercedes cars he felt were dawdling down the pit lane 'underpass', and came rather close to giving a cameraman an extreme close-up in the process.

The soft tyres meant a new line-up at the top of the timesheets, with Valtteri Bottas quickest on 1:25.024s ahead of Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu and the two McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris (who was still on mediums). Ferrari's Charles Leclerc moved the needle again by going two tenths quicker than the Alfa Romeo, before Norris moved to softs and slipped into second place just 0.043s behind the Ferrari.

Running on a used set of mediums, Verstappen was currently not vying for a top time - which was just as well, as he reported to the Red Bull pit wall that his "car is jumping like a kangaroo in the last sector!" He switched to the softs for the final five minutes and duly deposed Bottas from third; Perez looked to be going faster before abruptly backing off in the final sector.

The final seconds of the session saw Russell pop up to fifth place, three tenths off Leclerc's time. He was then disposed by Perez' final flier, but Verstappen didn't find any more time with his own run and remained third behind Leclerc and Norris. However the loss of running time and the mix of strategies meant that the running order on show had the statistical validity of reading tea leaves.

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