Everything that happened in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP2

Reigning Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton led the way in the second practice session of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as a crash for the retiring Kimi Raikkonen red-flagged the session.

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Key moments:
– Hamilton fastest by 0.343s
– Red Bull looks adrift on single-lap pace, but ahead of long-runs
– Raikkonen shunts his Alfa in final moments of the session

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In the closing seconds of the session, Raikkonen smashed his Alfa Romeo rear-first at Turn 14 and brought out a rare post-chequered flag red flag.

Kimi Raikkonen spins and hits the wall at Turn 14

Thankfully he is able to get out of his car#AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/TNQr9M80xh

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 10, 2021

Before that, Hamilton and title rival Max Verstappen appeared closely matched on their medium-tyre opening runs, but Hamilton uncorked an effort that put him nine tenths clear shortly before pitting for a tyre change.

The other Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas had his own medium-tyre run end seemingly prematurely as he went into a slide through Turn 14 and smacked the outside wall with the W12’s right rear, immediately returning to the pits.

It wasn’t long until the Finn rejoined, however, and on his second push lap on softs he jumped ahead, albeit just by a tenth over Hamilton’s medium benchmark.

While Bottas was soon pipped by the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, Hamilton was unable to surpass his medium laptime with his first two flyers on softs, only pulling it off with a third attempt – which put him three and a half tenths clear of Ocon.

Bottas, for his part, was well on course for a personal best on his qualifying sim lap, yet had to give up on it after a monster front right lock-up getting into Turn 12.

Yet both Mercedes still ended up handily clear of the two Red Bulls, Max Verstappen in fourth 0.641s off Hamilton’s pace, and just half a tenth up on team-mate Sergio Perez.

They would’ve been lower down the single-lap order, too, had Fernando Alonso’s best lap stood, the Spaniard having produced an effort that would’ve been good enough for an eventual fourth place had it not been chalked off due to track limits abuse.

Alonso was therefore sixth instead, followed by AlphaTauri’s rookie Tsunoda – enjoying a superb weekend so far – and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as the last two drivers within a second of Hamilton.

It is worth noting, however, that Verstappen and Perez looked to have something of an edge over the Mercedes duo in the long-run simulations that made up virtually the whole second half of the session.

McLaren, which needs nothing short of a miracle to overhaul Ferrari for third in the constructors’ standings, had Daniel Ricciardo as its top representative in 11th, with Alfa Romeo – which is likewise a massive long shot to overtake Williams for eighth place – led by Antonio Giovinazzi in 12th.

Apart from Bottas’s wall tap, another early incident came at Turn 13 as Nicholas Latifi went off and crunched his Williams FW43B’s rear wing against the barrier. But Latifi returned soon enough, going on to finish the session a tenth off team-mate George Russell.

Practice 2 Results