Hamilton pips Rosberg in second practice

2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix second practice

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Lewis Hamilton ended the first day of practice at Yas Marina on top of the times with less than a tenth of a second in hand over his title rival.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix practice in pictures
Just 79 thousandths of a second separated the two Mercedes drivers after their fastest runs on the ultra-soft tyres. Nico Rosberg set the quickest time through the second sector but was pipped by Hamilton in the other two.

Ferrari were almost able to match Mercedes in the first sector and Sebastian Vettel took the third-quickest time overall. However he came to a stop late in the session with a suspected gearbox problem.

There was almost nothing in it between the Red Bull drivers, Max Verstappen take fourth by one-thousandth of a second ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. However Ricciardo said he’d lost time on his lap due to traffic.

Behind Kimi Raikkonen the final four places in the top ten were all taken by Mercedes-powered cars. Sergio Perez, eighth, reported a loss of power in his car late in the session.

Following a delayed start to the session due to a power unit problem Jenson Button set the 12th-quickest time behind team mate Fernando Alonso. The Haas pair were next, Romain Grosjean forced to duck into the pits due to a water pressure problem.

However there were more problems for the Toro Rosso drivers. The pair ended the session at thew foot of the times having ceased their running after Daniil Kvyat suffered his secondleft-rear tyre failure in as many sessions. He spun off at speed when the tyre failed at turn 16, prompting anxious investigations in the Toro Rosso garage.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’40.86136
26Nico RosbergMercedes1’40.9400.07938
35Sebastian VettelFerrari1’41.1300.26931
433Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’41.3890.52824
53Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’41.3900.52933
67Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’41.4640.60334
777Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’41.9591.09835
811Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’42.0411.18035
927Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’42.2641.40336
1019Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’42.2681.40736
1114Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’42.3661.50533
1222Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’42.8231.96224
1321Esteban GutierrezHaas-Ferrari1’43.0122.15135
148Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’43.1082.24717
1530Jolyon PalmerRenault1’43.2722.41133
1631Esteban OconManor-Mercedes1’43.6002.73935
1794Pascal WehrleinManor-Mercedes1’43.7542.89333
1812Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’43.9033.04236
199Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’44.0453.18434
2020Kevin MagnussenRenault1’44.1173.25625
2155Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Ferrari1’44.4783.6175
2226Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Ferrari1’45.9485.0874

Second practice visual gaps

Lewis Hamilton – 1’40.861

+0.079 Nico Rosberg – 1’40.940

+0.269 Sebastian Vettel – 1’41.130

+0.528 Max Verstappen – 1’41.389

+0.529 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’41.390

+0.603 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’41.464

+1.098 Valtteri Bottas – 1’41.959

+1.180 Sergio Perez – 1’42.041

+1.403 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’42.264

+1.407 Felipe Massa – 1’42.268

+1.505 Fernando Alonso – 1’42.366

+1.962 Jenson Button – 1’42.823

+2.151 Esteban Gutierrez – 1’43.012

+2.247 Romain Grosjean – 1’43.108

+2.411 Jolyon Palmer – 1’43.272

+2.739 Esteban Ocon – 1’43.600

+2.893 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’43.754

+3.042 Felipe Nasr – 1’43.903

+3.184 Marcus Ericsson – 1’44.045

+3.256 Kevin Magnussen – 1’44.117

+3.617 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’44.478

+5.087 Daniil Kvyat – 1’45.948

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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23 comments on “Hamilton pips Rosberg in second practice”

  1. Any thoughts on Ros running a development wing on the long runs but not Ham? You might think the team would put that sort of thing on hold with the battle so intense this weekend. I guess the drivers are well used to it though.

    1. I guess the drivers are well used to it though.

      Yeah they’ve be alternating running it for a few races now. As to specifically in this session watching FP2 it looked like Rosberg flat spotted his tyres and curtailed his long run so I think they might have been making use of the sudden free space is his schedule.

      1. Makes sense!

  2. However Ricciardo said he’d lost time on his lap due to traffic.

    Bad sign he is making excuses for only a training session.

    1. It’s Verstappen who said:

      You can see Ferrari is 0.25 seconds off and I am pretty sure we can do that as on my fastest lap I got blocked,” he added. “I lost two or three tenths there. We are not too far off.

      http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ricciardo-still-hopeful-of-challenging-mercedes-in-race-853785/

      1. But RIC did not?

        Btw a nice interview between VES and RIC look here:
        link

    2. I agree.
      “In last practice, I should have been close to the top,” Verstappen said. “I got held up in the last sector quite aggressively.

    3. I agree, I saw how he was held up and it couldn’t have amounted to much more than half of one one thousanth of a thecond. Therefore VES is still champion of the world (RB, 2nd Practice, AD classification).

  3. It was predictable that Rosberg wouldn’t have pushed in friday practice: he’s using his last (legal) engine, and a break of it would mean a grid penalty for him, while Hamilton has another one as a reserve, due to Spa skulduggery.

    1. Dunno. It looked like he was pushing to me. In fact if you believe Ant Davidson’s commentary, he would have been fastest had he not had a moment in the third sector.

    2. You need to look up the definition of skulduggery because you clearly don’t know.

    3. Frk

      I suggest you look at my last reply to your completely ridiculous comments.you clearly have some strange issue here and a complete lack of understanding of the word ‘rules’

      Rules that all teams can use.

      For clarity both have engines with the same wear to within a few miles.

      Hamilton’s gearbox is on its last race. Rosbergs is new.

      FRK seems to ignore the other teams that have used said rules in the last two years to legally stockpile.

      And forgets said stockpile went up in flames in Malaysia…

      1. Drg steps in, makes things worse. What a surprise.

      2. Well, actually I didn’t remember of any other driver changing 3 engines in a weekend for making stockpile, for this I said LH was the only to benefit of such a controversial strategy, but if there were others, I said an inaccuracy, I don’t have any issue in admitting it, if it’s like this. Maybe he was the only title contender to do such a thing with these rules and for this reason I’ve been pretty scandalized by that.
        Anyway, as I don’t live in UK I have to rely to what my country’s broadcaster and commentators say during F1 TV coverage, and just today they said Rosberg’s engine is far more worn out than Hamilton’s one (no, I don’t live neither in Germany, if you’re wondering). I’d love to listen comment by competent people like Brundle or Herbert, but I can’t :-(
        For strange words I often write, I apoligize, but english is not my own language. Be patient, please ;-)
        And, as I said before, I’m not a Rosberg fan, simply I don’t like “predestined” champions: when Schumacher was winning many titles (unfairly, to me) I used to say worse things of him than anything I wrote about LH.

  4. Sheridan Repton
    25th November 2016, 16:38

    Neither of them used a race engine today anyway so it really didn’t matter.

    The race engine and gearbox does not get fitted until Saturday Practice.

    1. I didn’t know that, thank you for saying. So, my first comment was irrilevant, I’m sorry, as I said I have no problem in admitting when I’m wrong. ;-)

      1. Takes a man to say that FRK. Well done…

        1. @baron The only problem is he seems to be wrong a heck of a lot of times!

  5. Sergio Perez, eighth, reported a loss of power in his car late in the session. = Ham’s hope

    1. Perez getting an engine failure is Hamilton’s hope.

  6. Vettel P3.. gotta be careful that, he crashes a lot this year on first lap. Nico or Lewis better fight to stay P1 and far away from that nutcase… *sarcasm off*

    1. Give it a rest

  7. Wow, look at the difference between RBR guys! Can’t get closer than that.

Comments are closed.