@Max33Verstappen tops time-sheets in #AbuDhabiGP FP2. #F1

Verstappen Abu Dhabi FP2 – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was fastest in FP2 at the Abu Dhabi GP ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell who was second and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who completed the top three.

 

 

Verstappen posted the best effort with a 1:25.146 on the C5 Pirelli P Zero red side-walled Soft tyres and was 0.341 seconds quicker than Russell with Leclerc a further 0.453 adrift of the Dutchman.

 

Lewis Hamilton was fourth in the other Mercedes W13 entry, where all the 2022 regular drivers were piloting their machines after seven made way for seven youngsters or reserve drivers in opening practice.

 

For the only one-hour long practice session that runs in comparable conditions to both qualifying and the Grand Prix, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel lead the field out, with early proceedings completed on the C4 yellow-branded mediums and C3 white-marked hards, with the majority on the former form of the compound.

 

Vettel passed Zhou on their sighting tours and established the initial benchmark setting a 1:28.120 on the mediums, which Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas beat on his first lap on the hards, posting a 1:27.717.

 

Leclerc then jumped in-front with a 1:26.645, which stood as the fastest effort until the opening quarter of proceedings was completed, at this point the newly-crowned two-time world champion Verstappen moved ahead with a 1:25.449 on the quicker C5 red side-walled softs.

 

Almost ten minutes later, the Red Bull driver when for a second flyer on the softs and improved to a 1:25.335, at which point his rivals started to switch to the quicker rubber for their qualifying simulation stints.

 

Sergio Perez jumped to second behind his Red Bull team-mate, but the Mexican was over half-a-second down having lost 0.3 seconds in sector three.

 

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz aborted his initial hot-lap on the softs after coming by a slow-moving Haas VF-22 on the racing line ahead of the sweeping long-left turn nine hairpin at the top end of the Yas Marina Circuit.

 

Although the Spaniard was able to get another flying lap on the softs, Sainz wound up as the slowest of the top runners in sixth place and 0,786 off P1.

 

Running behind his Ferrari team-mate without a traffic issue, Leclerc used his initial flyer on the soft rubber to shadow Perez and was 0,264 off Verstappen’s effort, before the two Silver Arrows emerged on the red-marked compounds just after the midway point.

 

Russell, despite a snap of oversteer out of the downhill long turn five left-hand hairpin at the bottom end of the Yas Marina Circuit and having to weave his way through traffic in the final sequence of corners, jumped in-front of Leclerc with a 1:25.487.

 

Next was Hamilton, who had to abort his flying lap on the mediums earlier after remaining in his garage for the opening ten minutes as Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen was touring slowly on the racing line.

 

Hamilton posted the quickest sector one time on his qualifying simulation stint and matched Verstappen in sector two, but lost a heap in the last sector and ended up behind Leclerc.

 

After this, Verstappen who was in the pits for the previous 15 minutes, re-joined on another set of the softs to go for another flyer with just over a third of running left.

 

Verstappen could not beat Hamilton in sector one, but did go faster than his own established effort in sector two.

 

The Dutchman lost time in sector three compared to his personal best, but it did not stop him from setting the session’s best time with a 1:25.146.

 

This meant his final advantages over Russell, Leclerc and Hamilton were 0.341, 0.453 and 0.615 seconds respectively.

 

Perez ended up 0.706 seconds slower than his session-topping team-mate, as the Mexican was unable to improve on his personal best despite getting a final qualifying simulation stint at the same time as his Red Bull team-mate.

 

The rest of proceedings was dedicated to the traditional long race-run data gathering, which included a notable pit-stop for Sainz as he got a green light to exit his pit-box whilst a Ferrari mechanic still had his hands on the newly-fitted front-right tyre.

 

Sainz stopped just past his pit-box and spoke to his team over the radio asking if the mechanic was ok, which Ferrari confirmed he was.

 

The long runs were worrying for the Scuderia, as it suggested the Maranello-marque was so far off the pace in terms of race-pace compared to Red Bull, which lead the way on the medium-rubber with Verstappen.

 

Leclerc asked his team “why are we slow?”, to which he received a reply of “our pace is not great compared to the others.”

 

Behind the top six runners came BWT Alpine F1 Team duo Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso who were seventh and eighth respectively with the Anglo-French squad aiming to secure fourth in the World Constructor’s Championship standings ahead of McLaren.

 

But the Woking based-outfit did have Daniel Ricciardo under a tenth adrift of Alonso’s effort – in what was an eventful session for the departing McLaren driver.

 

The Australian tried to save a big snap through the quick right turn three on his opening flyer on the mediums, before noting his team’s pit-box included a slippery patch of new concrete, which meant he slid by his marks at one point in the early stages.

 

Alfa Romeo’s Bottas rounded out the top 10 runners in the classifications.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris finished FP2 outside the top ten in 11th place and in-front of Aston Martin’s Vettel who finished 12th in the order and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou who came 13th on the time-sheets.

 

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll placed 14th in the classification and ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who took 15th and Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who was 16th.

 

Haas F1 Team pairing Mick Schumacher and Magnussen ended the day in 17th and 18th respectively as AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi brought up the rear.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2022 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1138/abu-dhabi/practice-2.html

 

---

#AbuDhabiGP FP1: @LewisHamilton heads @MercedesAMGF1 one-two. #F1

@HulkHulkenberg replaces @SchumacherMick at @HaasF1Team for 2023. #F1

#Formula1 Etihad Airways #AbuDhabiGP 2022 Preview. #F1