Hamilton leads Ocon and Bottas in second practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton topped the second free practice session at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Esteban Ocon finished in second position ahead of Valtteri Bottas at the end of the session.

Max Verstappen finished in fourth position, 0.641 seconds slower than Hamilton. The Dutchman had good race pace on the longer runs even though he did not have the one-lap pace.

The second free practice session (FP2) started at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi under the lights. The temperatures dropped as the sun set and air temperatures at 25 degrees C and track temperatures at 30 degrees C.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C3), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C4), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C5), the softest compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

This was an important session as the session is held at the same time that qualification and the race will be held and the conditions are similar.

Hamilton went to the top of time charts with a lap time of 1m25.127s in the early exchanges. Norris displaced Hamilton for a brief period before he went back to the top with a lap time of 1m24.943s. Verstappen slotted into second position, 0.2 seconds slower than Hamilton.

Bottas and Nicholas Latifi found the barriers and suffered rear-wing damage.

Hamilton kept improving his lap times on the medium compound tyres. Ocon was having problems with his headrest but still recorded the third fastest lap time.

Many drivers including Fernando Alonso had their fast lap times deleted for exceeding track limits.

Ocon went to the top of the time charts on the soft compound tyres. Hamilton was the first driver to dip into 1m23s with a lap time of 1m23.691s to top the time charts, 0.343 faster than Ocon.

Bottas, Verstappen and Sergio Pérez were behind the top two drivers at this stage.

With fifteen minutes to go, the drivers started their race simulations. Verstappen was on the soft compound tyres and Hamilton was on the medium compound tyres. The Dutchman had very good race pace.

Just as the session was drawing to a close, Kimi Räikkönen slid into the wall at Turn 14 and his car suffered significant damage. The session was red-flagged and came to a close.

Alonso was in sixth position ahead of Yuki Tsunoda. Tsunoda had a strong Friday as he finished in the top ten positions in both practice sessions.

The two Scuderia Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, were in eighth and ninth positions, the same positions they finished in the first practice session. Pierre Gasly completed the top ten positions in this session.

The teams will pour over the data collected on Friday on this newly tweaked track. They have the disadvantage of having the third practice session in much hotter conditions than qualification.

2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP2 Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:23.691		26
2	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	1:24.034	+0.343s	29
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:24.083	+0.392s	29
4	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1:24.332	+0.641s	25
5	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	1:24.400	+0.709s	26
6	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine F1 Team	1:24.495	+0.804s	27
7	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:24.532	+0.841s	26
8	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:24.557	+0.866s	29
9	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:24.844	+1.153s	29
10	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:24.940	+1.249s	27
11	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:24.959	+1.268s	26
12	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:25.108	+1.417s	27
13	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:25.153	+1.462s	27
14	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:25.195	+1.504s	27
15	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:25.385	+1.694s	26
16	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:25.440	+1.749s	23
17	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1:25.549	+1.858s	29
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:25.687	+1.996s	22
19	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:25.784	+2.093s	27
20	9	Nikita Mazepin	RAF	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:26.336	+2.645s	26