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: