Practice Two - Hamilton forges ahead 12 Nov 2010
In the second practice session at Abu Dhabi, which took cars into the night under the lights of Yas Marina, Lewis Hamilton suggested that the outcome of Sunday’s race may be far from a forgone conclusion.
All of the title contenders showed very strong pace, but in the end it was the McLaren driver who was fastest, his lap of 1m 40.888s being 0.257s faster than Sebastian Vettel’s best for Red Bull of 1m 41.145s. Hamilton, however, did receive a reprimand from the stewards after crossing the white lane at the pit entry, whilst avoiding Bruno Senna’s slower-moving HRT.
Close behind the German, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Mark Webber were inseparable, on 1m 41.314s and 1m 41.315s respectively. Robert Kubica also suggested that he could throw a spanner into the works by taking his Renault round in 1m 41.576s, while Felipe Massa lapped his Ferrari in 1m 41.583s after a spin, but later stopped out on the track with mechanical problems.
Vitaly Petrov was seventh in the second Renault, on 1m 42.096s, and he was chased by Jenson Button on 1m 42.132s in the other McLaren, Vitantonio Liuzzi who was consistently quick in the lead Force India on 1m 42.203s, the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher on 1m 42.222s and 1m 42.246s respectively, Nico Hulkenberg in the lead Williams on 1m 42.449s, Adrian Sutil in the second Force India on 1m 42.535s, Kamui Kobayashi on 1m 42.768s in the lead BMW Sauber, Rubens Barrichello in the second Williams on 1m 42.914s and Nick Heidfeld in the other BMW Sauber on 1m 42.950s.
Jaime Alguersuari once again showed Toro Rosso team mate Sebastien Buemi the way round, with 1m 43.128s to 1m 43.584s, until he spun and stalled at Turn 19.
The battle in the new teams’ category was intense, as Heikki Kovalainen just pipped Timo Glock to 19th place with 1m 45.180s for Lotus. The Virgin driver lapped in 1m 45.612s, with Lotus’s Jarno Trulli on 1m 45.612 and then his team mate Lucas di Grassi next on 1m 46.053s. The HRTs brought up the rear again and proved very evenly matched, with Christian Klien on 1m 47.210s and Senna on 1m 47.434s.
Once again there were some wayward moments, notably for Alonso, Webber, Kobayashi, Hulkenberg, Alguersuari, Buemi, Barrichello and Schumacher, but Massa’s half spin and the Hamilton/Senna incident were the most significant.
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