Rosberg tops second practice at Abu Dhabi

F1 Grand Prix, GP Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuit

Nico Rosberg was the fastest man in the evening practice session at Abu Dhabi, topping the times both on the short run as well as edging out Hamilton on the longer runs.

It was Sebastian Vettel who kicked off the on-track action this evening. He soon was heard on the radio saying "I think I forgot something this morning", and upon a questions to clarify himself, he started singing happy birthday in Italian for his race engineer Riccardo Adami. Having completed his serenade, he went on to complete the first timed lap of the session, a low 1m45s.

In contract to Vettel's trouble free entry into the session, other drivers soon had some complaints, with Hamilton telling his team he needs to return to the pits for a steering wheel change, Raikkonen saying he didn't have enough control on the throttle while Button complained of having too much mechanical grip on the front end. Sainz had similar feedback, saying his Toro Rosso was "a bit on the nose", indicating oversteer.

Half an hour into the session, drivers started trying the super softs, before initiating on some longer runs halfway through the 90 minute session.

In the middle of a longer run, Sainz' bad luck struck again, with his team telling him to stop the engine immediately. The Spaniard managed to get it to the inside of the circuit at Turn 7 before rolling to a halt.

Meanwhile, Raikkonen appeared to be going well on the longer run, edging out Rosberg and Vettel. Hamilton on the other hand found he had much worse tyre degradation that the others, lapping half a second slower than them after about 5 laps on that set of tyres.

Towards the session's ending, Sergio Perez' brakes were the only noteworthy item, with the Mexican crawling back to the pits as his left rear brake caught fire. As he came to a halt in the box, the brake disc promptly disintegrated.

When the session ended, Rosberg knew he has all reasons to be optimistic for the rest of the weekend while Lewis Hamilton will likely take a proper look at his data tonight.

On-track action continues tomorrow in FP3 at 14:00 local time.