Leclerc quickest as team mate Sainz crashes in disrupted second practice

Ferrari had mixed emotions after second practice as Charles Leclerc set the quickest time but team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr crashed.

Sainz was one of two drivers to bring out the red flags after spinning into the barriers during the session with Nico Hulkenberg also skidding off later in the session. Leclerc ended the session with the quickest time just ahead of Lando Norris, with Max Verstappen third-fastest for Red Bull.

After both Red bull drivers handed over their cars to Jake Dennis and Isack Hadjar, Verstappen and Sergio Perez both reclaimed their seats for the second hour of practice – albeit with the new race engineers who appeared in the first session still in place.

Also getting their first runs of the day were Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg, Zhou Guanyu and Alexander Albon. However they all got around half as much time as they were expecting.

George Russell had set the pace in the opening session of the day and he immediately resumed ownership of the top spot with his first lap time of a 1’25.906 on medium compound tyres. Daniel Ricciardo went second fastest for AlphaTauri, while Lance Stroll was less than a tenth slower in third.

Less than 10 minutes into the session, the red flag was suddenly shown as Sainz’s Ferrari was in the outside barrier at turn three, just after the pit exit line. Sainz had been pushing through the opening corners before coming across Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri. Sainz claimed that dirty air from Tsunoda caused him to lose downforce on his car, sending him spinning into the barriers.

With the TecPro barrier in need of repair, there was a lengthy delay of almost half an hour before the session resumed. Verstappen was eager to begin pushing, overtaking several cars on his outlap, but he was unable to complete a timed lap as the red flag flew for a second time, this time for Hulkenberg spinning at the exit of the first corner and hitting the inside barrier, causing damage to the rear of his car.

After an additional delay of just under seven minutes, the session resumed for a second time with just 16 minutes of time remaining, with Verstappen again so keen to get out onto the track that he overtook both Mercedes of Russell and Hamilton at the exit of the pit lane.

Many drivers opted to fit soft tyres for the later minutes of the session, with Leclerc going quickest of all with a 1’24.809 on the red-walled rubber. Norris got within half a tenth of the Ferrari driver to go second, while Verstappen could only manage third for Red Bull, under two tenths slower.

Those proved the fastest times which ended with Leclerc on top at the end of a very disrupted session. Behind Norris and Verstappen, Valtteri Bottas put Alfa Romeo in fourth ahead of Sergio Perez in fifth, Russell in sixth, Zhou in seventh and Hamilton in eighth. Pierre Gasly and Oscar Piastri completed the top ten, with the top 15 drivers all covered by less than a second on the timing screen.

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2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix second practice result

P.	#	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-23	1’24.809		16
2	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’24.852	0.043	18
3	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’24.982	0.173	17
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’25.024	0.215	16
5	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’25.112	0.303	17
6	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W14	1’25.122	0.313	17
7	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’25.223	0.414	18
8	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W14	1’25.315	0.506	16
9	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’25.321	0.512	15
10	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’25.361	0.552	18
11	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’25.397	0.588	17
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’25.467	0.658	16
13	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’25.492	0.683	17
14	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’25.566	0.757	17
15	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’25.669	0.860	17
16	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’26.081	1.272	20
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’26.413	1.604	18
18	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’26.659	1.850	17
19	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-23	1’26.707	1.898	4
20	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’27.147	2.338	7

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