Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team topped the timesheets in the second free practice session of the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina as the two title contenders repeated their pace of the earlier session, Lewis Hamilton managed to hold on to the advantage over his team-mate Nico Rosberg by 0.079 seconds, despite complaining of wheel balance issues early in the session.
A gearbox failure from Sebastien Vettel‘s Scuderia Ferrari late in the session didn’t affect his overall running as he finished the session in third place ahead of the two Red Bull Racing cars of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. The other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top six.
Valterri Bottas led the Williams Martini Racing efforts as he finished the day with the seventh fastest time as the two Sahara Force India F1 Team cars of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg split the two Williams cars with Felipe Massa finishing his last FP2 session in tenth place.
McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team finished just outside the top ten with Fernando Alonso in eleventh and Jenson Button in twelfth. In a reversal of the morning session, Esteban Gutierrez finished ahead of Haas F1 Team rival Romain Grosjean.
Esteban Ocon showed promising pace to finish the session in sixteenth place in his Manor Racing MRT car, just behind the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team car of Jolyon Palmer. Pascal Wehrlein outpaced the two Sauber F1 Team cars of Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson while Kevin Magnussen languished in twentieth
An early puncture for Daniil Kvyat on the left rear saw him spin at high speed, thankfully for the Russian the huge run off areas allowed him to get away with minimal damage. Unfortunately for the Scuderia Toro Rosso team this would signal the end of the session for their cars as the investigated the issue that effected their car in both sessions, the result saw Carlos Sainz Jr. and Kvyat prop up the bottom of the table.
2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – FP2 Results
Pos Driver Chassis Engine Laps Time Gap Int. 1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Mercedes 36 1'40.861 2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes Mercedes 38 1'40.940 0.079 0.079 3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari Ferrari 31 1'41.130 0.269 0.190 4 Max Verstappen Red Bull TAG 24 1'41.389 0.528 0.259 5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull TAG 33 1'41.390 0.529 0.001 6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari Ferrari 34 1'41.464 0.603 0.074 7 Valtteri Bottas Williams Mercedes 35 1'41.959 1.098 0.495 8 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 35 1'42.041 1.180 0.082 9 Nico Hulkenberg Force India Mercedes 36 1'42.264 1.403 0.223 10 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 36 1'42.268 1.407 0.004 11 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 33 1'42.366 1.505 0.098 12 Jenson Button McLaren Honda 24 1'42.823 1.962 0.457 13 Esteban Gutierrez Haas Ferrari 35 1'43.012 2.151 0.189 14 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 17 1'43.108 2.247 0.096 15 Jolyon Palmer Renault Renault 33 1'43.272 2.411 0.164 16 Esteban Ocon Manor Mercedes 35 1'43.600 2.739 0.328 17 Pascal Wehrlein Manor Mercedes 33 1'43.754 2.893 0.154 18 Felipe Nasr Sauber Ferrari 36 1'43.903 3.042 0.149 19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 34 1'44.045 3.184 0.142 20 Kevin Magnussen Renault Renault 25 1'44.117 3.256 0.072 21 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso Ferrari 5 1'44.478 3.617 0.361 22 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso Ferrari 4 1'45.948 5.087 1.470
