Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas topped the second practice session in the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi GP under the lights from Red Bull Racing pair of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.
The Red Bull drivers were still in the hunt in FP2 of Abu Dhabi GP at Yas Marina Circuit after finishing second and third behind the Mercedes of Bottas (1m37.236s) who displaced the two midway in the session during his qualifying trim.
Verstappen (1m37.280s) continued his fine run to be second by just the 0.044s despite missing some time in the pits after going over the Turn 20 sausage kerb. The Dutchman had his teammate Daniel Ricciardo (1m37.428s) close bheind in third.
The 2018 champion Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (1m37.443s) slotted in fourth with the Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen (1m37.461s) and Sebastian Vettel (1m37.569s) in fifth and sixth respectively. Haas’ Romain Grosjean (1m38.060s) was the best of the rest in seventh.
His teammate Kevin Magnussen (1m38.318s) in ninth sandwiched Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m38.280s) with Racing Point Force India’s Esteban Ocon (1m38.402s) rounding out the Top 10.
The Top 8 were separated by less than a second in a close session. Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly (1m38.506s) was 11th ahead of Renault Carlos Sainz (1m38.511s) with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso (1m38.725s) doing well in 13th.
Racing Point Force India’s Sergio Perez (1m38.806s) was 14th with Sauber having a difficult time with Charles Leclerc (1m38.831s) in 15th ahead of Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley (1m38.957s) with the other Sauber of Marcus Ericsson (1m39.502s) in 17th.
The two Williams of Lance Stroll (1m40.046s) and Sergey Sirotkin (1m40.935s) completed the last row of the grid with McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne (1m39.938s) just of them in 18th in a fairly uneventful session.