FP2: Bottas leads Red Bull at nightfall

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuitae

Valtteri Bottas has fired his first warning signal in today's second practice session by going fastest on his Silver Arrows Mercedes. The Finn is out to avoid finishing 2018 win-less, now that both championships are secured.

Bottas was just 0.044s faster than Max Verstappen in the best Red Bull, with Ricciardo also less than two tenths behind. World Champion Lewis Hamilton ended up fourth fastest as he settled down after a scruffy time in first practice.

Raikkonen and Vettel upped their pace compared to FP1. Good news for them, given that the setting sun during FP2 makes the conditions very similar to what will be the case during Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's race.

Behind the closely matched top 6, Romain Grosjean was the best of the rest, putting his Haas VF-14 in 7th, 8 tenths down on Bottas, but ahead of the fastest Renault as they seek to challenge the yellow French cars for 4th in the constructors' championship.

Just like in the first session, drivers continued to struggle somewhat for grip, but it now came down to the sausage kerb in Turn 20, where many ran wide. Esteban Ocon at one point reported that the kerb was indeed breaking down, with Leclerc and Verstappen incurring floor damage to their cars.

Results

Pos.No.DriverCarTimeGapLaps
177Valtteri BottasMercedes1:37.236-37
233Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:37.280+0.044s32
33Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:37.428+0.192s31
444Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:37.443+0.207s35
57Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:37.461+0.225s40
65Sebastian VettelFerrari1:37.569+0.333s39
78Romain GrosjeanHaas Ferrari1:38.060+0.824s30
827Nico HulkenbergRenault1:38.230+0.994s36
920Kevin MagnussenHaas Ferrari1:38.318+1.082s30
1031Esteban OconForce India Mercedes1:38.402+1.166s33
1110Pierre GaslyScuderia Toro Rosso Honda1:38.506+1.270s32
1255Carlos SainzRenault1:38.511+1.275s37
1314Fernando AlonsoMcLaren Renault1:38.725+1.489s35
1411Sergio PerezForce India Mercedes1:38.806+1.570s31
1516Charles LeclercSauber Ferrari1:38.831+1.595s33
1628Brendon HartleyScuderia Toro Rosso Honda1:38.957+1.721s35
179Marcus EricssonSauber Ferrari1:39.502+2.266s36
182Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren Renault1:39.938+2.702s18
1918Lance StrollWilliams Mercedes1:40.046+2.810s33
2035Sergey SirotkinWilliams Mercedes1:40.935+3.699s39