#AbuDhabiGP FP2: @CharlesLeclerc tops red-flag affected session. #F1

Leclerc Abu Dhabi GP FP2 – Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped a twice red-flag affected FP2 session at the Abu Dhabi GP narrowly ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris as Max Verstappen completed the top three for Red Bull.

The two incidents left only 16 minutes of running till the end of the session as Leclerc posted the benchmark of a 1:24.809 on the C5 red side-walled softer compounds and was a very slim 0.043 seconds clear of Norris as Verstappen was a further 0.173 off the Monegasque driver in third.

Before the red flags hit, Mercedes’ George Russell was sitting on top of the order to reciprocate his position from FP1 with a 1:25.906 effort on the C4 yellow-marked mediums, which allowed the Briton to jump brief P1 holder Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen by half-a-second.

Carlos Sainz’s snap on the entry to turn three sent his Ferrari SF-23 entry into the wall, causing the session’s first red flag after eight minutes running. The Spaniard felt dirty turbulent air from the car in-front and a bump during the right-hand bend was to blame for the shunt.

This slipped the valuable time running from the 10 drivers who had missed opening practice away, as they watched on their reserve driver colleagues fulfil the rookie driver regulations for Free Practice 1 sessions.

This caused a long delay as marshals repaired the affected Techpro barrier, which prompted 27-minute halt in proceedings.

When the session continued with 25 minutes remaining, it was stopped once again three minutes later as Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg hit the wall at turn one after losing the rear of his VF-23 racer on the exit kerb and going into the opposite Armco barrier backwards.

This delay was relatively shorter than the first and left 16 minutes of running as drivers sought to collect as much data as they could with the limit amount of time on the clock.

McLaren’s Norris shot to the top with a 1:25.625 on the mediums and then quickly demoted by his soft-tyre-running team-mate Oscar Piastri’s time.

The Alfa Romeo duo then moved to the head of the time-sheets, as Valtteri Bottas put his C43 on P1 with a 1:25.024 effort on the softs, with Zhou Guanyu a further three tenths behind his team-mate. The pairing were split by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly before they were dropped down a position by Leclerc’s 1:24.809 session-topping effort.

Norris improved to a 1:24.852 to clinch second in the pile, whilst Verstappen was third quickest having been just a tenth off of the Briton.

Verstappen was visibly agitated on the first restart with the Williams pairing attempting to jump into the queue to leave the pits, asking for their actions to be reported to the stewards.

The Dutchman then pushed his way past the two Mercedes in the underground crossover before the second resumption of FP2, having felt he was blocked. Further frustrations from the three-time world champion emerged when he complained of his RB19 racer “hopping like a kangaroo” through the final sector.

Bottas’ effort was good enough for fourth in the classification, holding off the second Red Bull RB19 entry of Sergio Perez, although the Mexican set a purple sector two, he aborted his lap at the final sequence and relied on his later flyer with the best taken out of his rubber.

Russell placed sixth in-front of Zhou, as Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton having given up control of his F1 W14 entry to rookie Frederik Vesti for opening practice.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri completed the top ten.

Aston Martin pairing Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll finished the session in 11th and 13th respectively as AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo sandwiched in-between the duo in 12th.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon ended the day 14th in the classification and in-front of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who placed 15th, Williams’ Alexander Albon who was 16th and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who came 17th in the order.

Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant took 18th as the aforementioned Sainz and Hulkenberg brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1226/abu-dhabi/practice-2.html

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