Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Yas Marina, 2019

Bottas goes fastest again, then hits Grosjean

2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix second practice

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Valtteri Bottas remained on top in the second practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but was involved in a bizarre incident with Romain Grosjean later in the decision.

The Mercedes driver moved to overtake the Haas at turn 11, but came from a fair distance back, and Grosjean didn’t see him as he turned in. The pair made contact, leaving a bemused Grosjean with damage. The session had to be red-flagged while the debris was cleared. It was later restarted, but at the end Bottas was advised the team had identified a leak on his car.

Mercedes ended the session first and second, but Lewis Hamilton was around three-tenths of a second off his team mate after encountering an upshift problem early in his run.

He was just seven-hundredths of a second faster than Charles Leclerc, who survived a brush with the same turn 19 barrier Sebastian Vettel hit at the end of first practice. Leclerc had to put another set of soft tyres on to complete his run to third-fastest, while Vettel ended up with a tenth of him.

The Red Bull pair continued a symmetrical top six. Max Verstappen slipped from second in first practice to fifth, over half a second off Bottas’s pace, with a similar gap back to Alexander Albon in sixth.

Before being hit by Bottas, Grosjean set the seventh-best time for Haas, but just hundredths of a second separated him from Sergio Perez, and Daniil Kvyat in ninth. The second Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.

The bottom half of the times also had a symmetrical look, with Renault ahead of Alfa Romeo and, last as usual, the Williams pair. The quickest FW42 was over a second off the next-best car.

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Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
177Valtteri BottasMercedes1’36.25629
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’36.5660.31032
316Charles LeclercFerrari1’36.6420.38630
45Sebastian VettelFerrari1’36.6910.43528
533Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’36.8070.55130
623Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’37.2881.03230
78Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’37.6011.34517
811Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’37.6371.38131
926Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Honda1’37.6511.39534
1010Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’37.7701.51436
1155Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’37.8341.57832
124Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’37.9181.66232
1318Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’37.9851.72932
1420Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’38.0801.82431
1527Nico HulkenbergRenault1’38.1221.86629
163Daniel RicciardoRenault1’38.4002.14425
177Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’38.4152.15930
1899Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’38.4642.20832
1963George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’39.5123.25631
2088Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes1’40.4554.19931

Second practice visual gaps

Valtteri Bottas – 1’36.256

+0.310 Lewis Hamilton – 1’36.566

+0.386 Charles Leclerc – 1’36.642

+0.435 Sebastian Vettel – 1’36.691

+0.551 Max Verstappen – 1’36.807

+1.032 Alexander Albon – 1’37.288

+1.345 Romain Grosjean – 1’37.601

+1.381 Sergio Perez – 1’37.637

+1.395 Daniil Kvyat – 1’37.651

+1.514 Pierre Gasly – 1’37.770

+1.578 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’37.834

+1.662 Lando Norris – 1’37.918

+1.729 Lance Stroll – 1’37.985

+1.824 Kevin Magnussen – 1’38.080

+1.866 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’38.122

+2.144 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’38.400

+2.159 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’38.415

+2.208 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’38.464

+3.256 George Russell – 1’39.512

+4.199 Robert Kubica – 1’40.455

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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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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4 comments on “Bottas goes fastest again, then hits Grosjean”

  1. 100% VB at fault.
    Idiotic lunge far too late into any corner.

  2. VB was just practicing overtaking for the race.

    1. It was a practice run for a move to Ferrari, next year, so they had him hit a pretend Ferrari.

      PS: I know, I know, dead horse and all that…

      PPS: Damn! I didn’t mean dead horse as in Ferrari! I swear!

  3. Merc radio: Bottas was passing Grosjean and Grosjean turned in on him
    Hamilton: chuckle

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