Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas has gone quickest in second practice at Yas Marina, despite ending his session early due to a collision.
Click here for the complete results from FP2 – 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Valtteri Bottas has gone quickest in second practice at Yas Marina. The Mercedes man picked up where he felt off in the morning session and remained similarly untouchable at the front of the pack as he set a 1:36.256 on the Soft tyres. This time was set during the qualifying simulations at the halfway point of the session.
However, after a near-perfect day overall, Bottas made an error in the final minutes of the session. Closing in rapidly on Romain Grosjean as the pair neared the end of the second straight, Bottas lunged up the inside of the Haas driver as he had much greater entry speed. However, Grosjean didn’t appear to be expecting him and turned in on him. The pair made heavy contact and spun around, and had to return to the pits under red flag conditions for repairs. Neither were able to take further part in the session.
Valtteri Bottas thought he had room to overtake on the inside
Romain Grosjean disagreed#AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/5Jk7vt6urk
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 29, 2019
Having already completed the qualifying simulations, Bottas’ time remained unchallenged in practice as teammate Lewis Hamilton went P2 and 0.3 behind the Finn. He was just 0.076 clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque driver had to rescue a big moment during his first flying lap on the Softs as he almost binned it at the same corner Sebastian Vettel did during FP1. Leclerc gave the barriers a glancing blow and had to return to the pits, but escaped serious damage. He came back out on another set of Softs to set his best time.
Vettel finished P4, having recovered from his first practice mishap. He set his best time on the second flying lap on his Soft tyres, finished half a tenth behind Leclerc’s best time and just over a tenth clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Alex Albon finished P6 in the second Red Bull, half a second away from Verstappen, while Romain Grosjean was P7 on the timing screens despite being sidelined by Bottas’ collision.
Sergio Perez finished P8 in his Racing Point, while a strong day for Toro Rosso was topped off by them rounding out the top ten in P9 & P10 in practice with Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly respectively.
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