Abu Dhabi, FP2: Rosberg closes gap to Hamilton in second practice

Hamilton edges Rosberg as title tensions heighten

By Franck Drui

25 November 2016 - 15:41
Abu Dhabi, FP2: Rosberg closes gap (...)

Nico Rosberg closed to within a tenth of a second of title rival Lewis Hamilton in second practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as the Briton continued to set the pace at Yas Marina Circuit.

In opening practice Hamilton outpaced Rosberg by more than three tenths but in the early evening session, on ultrasoft tyres, the championship leader found more pace and ended the 90 minutes just 0.079s behind his team-mate with a lap of 1:40.940.

Sebastian Vettel was third quickest for Ferrari and after being 1.1s behind Hamilton in the early afternoon session, the German closed the gap to 0.269 on the purple-banded softest compound on offer this weekend. Vettel’s session wasn’t without trouble, however, and his was forced to stop with a suspected gearbox issue.

The four-time champion’s performance overhauled a significant deficit to Red Bull Racing, which had enjoyed ‘best of the rest’ status in the opening session. In the evening, Max Verstappen was the quicker of the two Red Bulls, edging team-mate Daniel Ricciardo by just one thousandth of a second. Verstappen, though, was 0.259 behind Vettel. The Red Bulls managed to split the Ferraris, with Kimi Raikkonen finishing in sixth place with a time of 1:41.464.

After Felipe Massa finished ninth in the first session Williams, team-mate Valterri Bottas boosted the Grove team up the order by claiming seventh in the evening, though the Finn was just eight hundredths of a second clear of Force India’s Sergio Perez. Nico Hulkenberg in the second Force India took eighth place ahead of Massa who rounded out the top 10.

McLaren improved in the second session, too, with Fernando Alonso jumping to P11 from P18 and Jenson Button recovering from a troubled opening session in which he posted just 10 laps and finished 20 to take P12.

Toro Rosso, though, had a troubled evening with Daniil Kvyat suffering a second puncture (the first came in the opening session). The failure caused him to spin off at high speed and though he avoided a big accident, he limped back to the pits where checks were undertaken. Neither he nor team-mate Carlos Sainz appeared on track again during the session.

Pos.DriverTeamTimeLaps
01 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG 1:40.861 36
02 Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG 1:40.940 38
03 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:41.130 31
04 Max Verstappen Red Bull Tag Heuer 1:41.389 24
05 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Tag Heuer 1:41.390 33
06 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:41.464 34
07 Valtteri Bottas Williams Mercedes 1:41.959 35
08 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1:42.041 35
09 Nico Hulkenberg Force India Mercedes 1:42.264 36
10 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 1:42.268 36
11 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 1:42.366 33
12 Jenson Button McLaren Honda 1:42.823 24
13 Esteban Gutierrez Haas Ferrari 1:43.012 35
14 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:43.108 17
15 Jolyon Palmer Renault F1 1:43.272 33
16 Esteban Ocon Manor Mercedes 1:43.600 35
17 Pascal Wehrlein Manor Mercedes 1:43.754 33
18 Felipe Nasr Sauber Ferrari 1:43.903 36
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 1:44.045 34
20 Kevin Magnussen Renault F1 1:44.117 25
21 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso Ferrari 1:44.478 5
22 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso Ferrari 1:45.948 4

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