Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Free Practice 2: Mercedes in front, Räikkönen’s Alfa on fire

After a first session dominated by Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas, the 20 drivers return to the track as the sun sets. The Pirelli prototype tires, widely criticized by the teams in Bahrain, also make their return for this practice session. This time, the C4 tires are being tested. The teams will have to complete 8 timed laps per driver.

Two drivers are returning to their single-seaters, Antonio Giovinazzi at Alfa Romeo and Kevin Magnussen, respectively replaced this morning by Robert Kubica and Mick Schumacher.

After thirty minutes of trials

After these famous eight mandatory laps, the drivers finally put on the 2020 tires and continue their preparations on this Yas Marina circuit. Many teams try to adjust their cars, the vehicles are lively and force the drivers to drive with understeer.

Fitted with medium tires, Valtteri Bottas leads the standings with a time of 1:36.276. He is closely followed by Lewis Hamilton (+0.203) and Sergio Perez (+1.230).

Note that Daniel Ricciardo is back on track, the fuel pressure issue encountered this morning has been resolved. The French team had planned to change the engine this evening anyway.

At taxi time

The drivers finally put on the soft tires, if Lewis sets the best time, it is immediately withdrawn. The track marshals will be strict this weekend, especially in turn 21 (the last turn). A track excursion that goes too far will result in the current lap and the next one being canceled.

Pierre Gasly, on soft tires, was unable to improve his time, indeed an error at the first corner spun him around, damaging his set of tires.

Gasly is pushing hard in FP2 – a little bit too hard on this occasion ????

The Frenchman recovers and is currently P8 in the standings with just under 40 mins remaining in the session #AbuDhabiGP ???????? #F1 pic.twitter.com/r59TJN1vsS

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 11, 2020

The Mercedes are still at the top of the timesheets, but this time the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Alex Albon are in 3rd and 4th positions. The gaps are very tight with only 0.3 seconds separating Lando Norris in 5th and Carlos Sainz in 12th.

The last half-hour of testing

The return of George Russell to Williams, after having driven the Mercedes, is surely complicated. MGU-K issue on car number 63 ends the British driver’s session 20 minutes before the checkered flag.

As we were reminded this morning, the race cars and their engines are worn out, as evidenced by the engine of Kimi Räikkönen’s Alfa Romeo catching fire 15 minutes before the end of the session. This incident led to the deployment of the red flag. Kimi Räikkönen, also known as Ice Man, took care of the engine fire on his own race car.

The fire is out

Kimi is ok – he also helped the marshals with their work ????#AbuDhabiGP ???????? #F1 pic.twitter.com/OxyylMZsle

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 11, 2020

At the restart, Lewis Hamilton encounters an issue in the pit lane, unable to engage a gear, the car eventually goes back out for the final 3 minutes.

At the end of the session, the same four drivers are at the top of the rankings. Valtteri Bottas leads the way ahead of his teammate, with Max Verstappen and Alex Albon completing this top 4.

The Free Practice 2 standings