Bottas leads close second practice session

Last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winner Valtteri Bottas headed the second practice session today for Mercedes but there was little to choose between the top teams.

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Bottas was less than five-hundredths of a second faster than Max Verstappen after their qualifying simulation runs on the hyper-soft tyres. Ricciardo backed up his team mate in third place, just under two-tenths off Bottas.

Lewis Hamilton, who is still running the power unit which caused him trouble in Brazil, was fractionally slower than Ricciardo in fourth. However Hamilton is also under investigation for committing an infringement in first practice when he crossed the white line at the pit entrance.

Fifth-placed Kimi Raikkonen was just three-hundredths of a second off Ricciardo, meaning just 0.225s covered the top three teams. Sebastian Vettel was a tenth behind in sixth, followed by a gap of nearly half a second to the midfield. Both Ferraris lost much of their time in the final sector of the lap.

Haas put in a strong showing with Romain Grosjean, seventh, leading the midfield, and Kevin Magnussen in ninth, sandwiching Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault. Esteban Ocon completed the top 10.

Pierre Gasly was the quicker of the Toro Rosso drivers in 11th place. However the Williams pair were rooted to the bottom of the times at the end of their final Friday with the team.

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Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1’37.236		37
2	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1’37.280	0.044	32
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1’37.428	0.192	31
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’37.443	0.207	35
5	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1’37.461	0.225	40
6	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1’37.569	0.333	39
7	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1’38.060	0.824	30
8	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1’38.230	0.994	36
9	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’38.318	1.082	30
10	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	1’38.402	1.166	33
11	10	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso-Honda	1’38.506	1.270	32
12	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Renault	1’38.511	1.275	37
13	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault	1’38.725	1.489	35
14	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1’38.806	1.570	31
15	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber-Ferrari	1’38.831	1.595	33
16	28	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso-Honda	1’38.957	1.721	35
17	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1’39.502	2.266	36
18	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault	1’39.938	2.702	18
19	18	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes	1’40.046	2.810	33
20	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams-Mercedes	1’40.935	3.699	39

Second practice visual gaps

Valtteri Bottas – 1’37.236

+0.044 Max Verstappen – 1’37.280

+0.192 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’37.428

+0.207 Lewis Hamilton – 1’37.443

+0.225 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’37.461

+0.333 Sebastian Vettel – 1’37.569

+0.824 Romain Grosjean – 1’38.060

+0.994 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’38.230

+1.082 Kevin Magnussen – 1’38.318

+1.166 Esteban Ocon – 1’38.402

+1.270 Pierre Gasly – 1’38.506

+1.275 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’38.511

+1.489 Fernando Alonso – 1’38.725

+1.570 Sergio Perez – 1’38.806

+1.595 Charles Leclerc – 1’38.831

+1.721 Brendon Hartley – 1’38.957

+2.266 Marcus Ericsson – 1’39.502

+2.702 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’39.938

+2.810 Lance Stroll – 1’40.046

+3.699 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’40.935

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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12 comments on “Bottas leads close second practice session”

Jere (@jerejj)
23rd November 2018, 15:16

Still, a second off the pace of last season’s pole time.
1. Aaditya (@neutronstar)
  23rd November 2018, 16:44
  
  @jerejj I think it would be better to compare today’s lap times with the fastest FP2 time last year. I don’t remember what it was, though…
  
  Although, interestingly enough, last season’s F1.5 pole time (1:38.282 by Hulkenberg) has already been beaten by both Hulk and Grosjean. Hulk set a faster lap in Q2 i.e. a 1:38.138, but Grosjean’s time is good enough to beat that as well. I think the top teams are holding back a bit. There’s no way the gap between them and the midfield is a mere 0.8 seconds when Hulk was 2 seconds off the pace in qualy last year and the average gap has been quite a bit over a second for longer circuits this season. I think the lap record will most definitely be broken come Saturday, given that the teams usually find well over a second worth of lap time from FP2 to Q3.
  1. Jere (@jerejj)
    23rd November 2018, 19:38
    
    @neutronstar Yes indeed in all likelihood it’s going to get beaten, but I was expecting it to get beaten in FP2 already, or at least very close to it.
ColdFly (@)
23rd November 2018, 15:27

Will be another great F1.5 race with the top 10 within a second.

check our more detail via https://www.reddit.com/r/Formula1Point5/
1. BaKano (@bakano)
  23rd November 2018, 17:12
  
  I have been looking for this @coldfly for quite some time (and I never remember to check reddit).
  Finally I can see the detailed results of F1.5 … to bad I only find it in the last GP of the season…
Daniel (@db01)
23rd November 2018, 15:58

Why are they so much than last season?
1. Mashiat (@mashiat)
  23rd November 2018, 19:32
  
  @db01 So much what? Sexier? Heavier? More sympathetic? The suspense is killing me!
  1. Aaditya (@neutronstar)
    23rd November 2018, 20:00
    
    @mashiat My guess is ‘more evil’, but I hope @db01 clears this up asap.
    1. Esploratore (@esploratore)
      24th November 2018, 1:42
      
      Suppose slower!
      1. Daniel (@db01)
        24th November 2018, 2:19
        
        Hahaha, points go to @esploratore!
        I can’t believe I missed out the most important word in the sentence there :D
Pratyush P (@pratyushp276)
23rd November 2018, 17:45

I expect that the hypersofts will fall off towards the end of the quali lap, and that the tyres won’t be very sustainable in the race. There’s a real chance that Red Bull will win again here (although I might be eating my words by Sunday evening)
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
23rd November 2018, 19:19

Watch Ocon. He will start one lap later and then pass everybody in the last 10 laps. ;-)