Nico Rosberg took top spot in second practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, reversing the positions seen in opening practice earlier in the day.
The Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS duo were once again the class of the field, with Rosberg’s time of 1m41.983s seeing him end the session 0.138s faster than Hamilton but more than six-tenths of a second faster than third placed Sergio Perez, who impressed once more for Sahara Force India.
Despite seeing his session ended twenty minutes early due to a brake problem, Perez outpaced Daniel Ricciardo in the leading Infiniti Red Bull Racing entry by 0.037s, with the Australian reverting to the older specification Renault engine for this weekend rather than the upgraded engine he used two weeks ago in Brazil.
Sebastian Vettel finished the session in fifth for Scuderia Ferrari, with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen seventh just behind the second Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat.
Nico Hulkenberg confirmed Force India’s pace by finishing the session in eighth, while McLaren-Honda saw Fernando Alonso get within a second of the ultimate pace, with the Spaniard ending ninth ahead of Pastor Maldonado for Lotus.
Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa had another relatively disappointing session for the Williams Martini Racing team, ending eleventh and twelfth respectively, ahead of another duo of team-mates, Max Verstappen outpacing Carlos Sainz Jr in the battle of the Scuderia Toro Rosso drivers.
Romain Grosjean, who is racing for the Lotus team for the final time this weekend ahead of his move to the Haas F1 Team in 2016, placed fifteenth, ahead of the second McLaren of Jenson Button, while the two Sauber F1 Team drivers were down in P17 and P18 respectively, Felipe Nasr ahead of Marcus Ericsson.
After being more than a second adrift of team-mate Will Stevens in first practice, Roberto Merhi cut the gap to his British team-mate to just 0.572s in the second session, with the Manor F1 Team drivers again well adrift of the rest of the field.
Yas Marina Circuit Free Practice 2 Result
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