Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes firmly on top in Practice 2 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
First, the Briton went almost a second clear of the field during the initial flying laps on medium tyres and then improved to a 1m23.691s on the soft compound, the only driver sub 1m24s.
Alpine impressed with Esteban Ocon second, fractionally ahead of Valtteri Bottas in third. Fernando Alonso was just as quick as his teammate but had his best time deleted for track limits.
P2 ok for #FP2 @OconEsteban? ??#AbuDhabiGP #F1Finale pic.twitter.com/IJZQWwyIOZ
— Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) December 10, 2021
After setting the pace in the daytime session, Max Verstappen would be 0.6s slower in fourth for Red Bull just ahead of Sergio Perez in the sister car.
Despite their lack of speed over one lap though, both drivers were quicker than both Mercedes’ during the long run in the second half of the session.
Alonso was sixth ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who was once again ahead of AlphaTauri teammate Pierre Gasly down in 10th.
Between them was the two Ferraris in eighth and ninth, with Charles Leclerc continuing to lead Carlos Sainz.
Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris were 11th and 13th respectively for McLaren, sandwiching Antonio Givoinazzi in 12th.
The two Aston Martins were 14th and 15th, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who caused a red flag after chequered flag with a crash at Turn 14.
Kimi Raikkonen spins and hits the wall at Turn 14
Thankfully he is able to get out of his car#AbuDhabiGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/TNQr9M80xh
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 10, 2021
George Russell was 17th in his first session of the weekend, while Nicholas Latifi also had a bump with the barrier in 18th.
Mick Schumacher hung on to the lower midfield pack in 19th, still 0.6s clear of Haas teammate Nikita Mazepin at the back of the field.
An interesting hour of running then with Mercedes and Red Bull appearing to take very different approaches as the Brackley-based team focused on single-lap pace their Milton Keynes-based rivals had a solid advantage on race pace.
How will it change going into Saturday? We’ll have to wait and see!
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
