Free Practice 2 – Abu Dhabi: Nico Rosberg’s Turn

For this second Friday session, conditions are still perfect (26°C in the air, 29°C on the track) as the sun begins to set on the horizon of Abu Dhabi.

The session begins somewhat unusually as Sebastian Vettel starts singing in Italian for Riccardo Adami’s birthday, his race engineer, during his entry lap. The Ferrari drivers then take the lead, with Kimi Räikkönen ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

Nevertheless, it does not last long and, in his first attempt, Nico Rosberg takes the fastest time. On his first attempt, Lewis Hamilton only manages to secure 4th place and asks his team to look into his gearbox, which reportedly made a strange noise when shifting gears.

But it seems that the Briton’s single-seater doesn’t have major problems as he is able to improve and regain the top of the timesheets, 0.395 seconds ahead of Nico Rosberg. Nevertheless, this significant difference is due to the fact that the drivers were not on the same engine setting. The German is then able to raise his level of play but remains two-tenths behind his teammate.

After an initial series of laps to find his bearings in his Lotus, Romain Grosjean is able to position himself in 13th place, just behind Pastor Maldonado.

P13 for RG’s first effort and we bring you this pretty screen shot of the Yas Marina whilst we’re at it. pic.twitter.com/BdLQhO1bwS

— Lotus F1 Team (@Lotus_F1Team) 27 Novembre 2015

After half an hour, the two Mercedes still dominate the proceedings, with Kimi Räikkönen closing in on the star duo. The rest of the top 10 consists of Ricciardo, Vettel, Perez, Hülkenberg, Massa, Kvyat, and Bottas.

It was then that most of the drivers decided to fit the super-soft tires, which are said to be a second faster than the softs. This immediately translates into an improvement in times. While Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel managed to get ahead of Nico Rosberg, they remained a tenth behind Lewis Hamilton’s time on softs.

When the Mercedes cars fit the softest tires, they immediately take the lead again. This time, Nico Rosberg manages to achieve the best performance (1:41.983), one-tenth ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Daniel Ricciardo is then pushed back by six-tenths. Sergio Perez secures a nice third place with 1:42.610, while Fernando Alonso can be satisfied with being ninth, just under a second behind the Mercedes.

For the second half of the session, as night has now fallen on Yas Island’s marina, the teams focus on evaluating the tires with these cooler temperatures. Having done few laps at the start of the session, Romain Grosjean takes the opportunity to string together some laps. He then climbs to 15th place, just ahead of Jenson Button.

Half an hour before the end, Carlos Sainz is forced to park his Toro Rosso inside the hairpin of turn 7 due to a new technical issue related to his engine block, which causes a yellow flag but does not interrupt the session since his car is not on the normal racing line. From the tone of his voice on the radio, you can feel the Spaniard is affected by another reliability problem as he hasn’t been spared since the beginning of the season.

YELLOW FLAG: Sainz loses power at the hairpin and his session looks like it’s over #AbuDhabiGP #FP2 pic.twitter.com/TdA92Owkzt

— Formula 1 (@F1) 27 Novembre 2015

With fifteen minutes remaining, Sergio Perez, still third in the session, returned to his pit due to issues with his rear brakes. When the tires were removed, pieces fell to the ground. The Mexican’s session is therefore already over.

At the end of this session, more and more drivers are complaining about the advanced degradation of their tires, which is causing multiple lock-ups during heavy braking. This therefore gives mechanics the opportunity to practice tire changes.

PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION (end of #FP2) Rosberg turns the tables on his team-mate #AbuDhabiGP #F1Finale pic.twitter.com/TZpI3H1lKp

— Formula 1 (@F1) 27 Novembre 2015

From our special correspondent in Abu Dhabi