Charles Leclerc was the fastest in the second free practice and on the first day of the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix. The night session was marked by two red flag interruptions.
After leading FP1, George Russell (Mercedes) was again at the top of this second practice, still on medium tires. With less than ten minutes elapsed, Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) hit the walls at turn three, causing the first red flag. The barrier was damaged and had to be repaired, causing a long interruption of almost half an hour.
When the session resumed, there were still 25 minutes left, but shortly after, an accident by Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) at turn one caused another red flag. When the session was resumed again, there was just over fifteen minutes left. A short but precious time in the preparations after several drivers were replaced by rookies in FP1.
Lando Norris (McLaren) took the lead, only to be surpassed by teammate Oscar Piastri. Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou subsequently took the Alfa Romeo to the first two positions, but they would be separated by other drivers. Leclerc set a time of 1m24.809s to record the fastest time of the session.
The Monegasque driver from Ferrari was not surpassed until the end, but Norris was not far behind, only 43 milliseconds. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who did not hide his frustration at feeling hindered by rivals on two occasions, finished with the third fastest time, 0.130s behind. Bottas finished fourth ahead of Sergio Pérez (Red Bull). Russell was sixth and, further down, his teammate Lewis Hamilton finished eighth. Fernando Alonso could only manage 11th place in the best Aston Martin.
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