Bottas fastest as night falls in Abu Dhabi FP2

Valtteri Bottas led Mercedes to the head of the field as night fell for second practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Friday, edging out FP1 pace-setter Max Verstappen.

Verstappen headed up a one-two finish for Red Bull in opening practice at the Yas Marina Circuit, only for Mercedes to respond in FP2 with Bottas leading the way.

The 2017 Abu Dhabi race winner turned in a fastest lap time of 1m37.236s to edge out Verstappen by 0.044 seconds, giving Mercedes top spot under the floodlights.

Both Verstappen and Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo were able to find more time on their second flying laps on the Hypersoft tyres, with the duo taking P2 and P3 respectively. Ricciardo finished 0.192 seconds off Bottas at the head of the pack.

Five-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton took fourth place, two-tenths back from his pace-setting teammate, while Ferrari failed to trouble the leading cars as Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel finished fifth and sixth respectively.

Romain Grosjean finished as the leading midfield driver in seventh place for Haas, with teammate Kevin Magnussen taking P9. Nico Hulkenberg split the Haas drivers for Renault, while Force India’s Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 10 positions.

The session went by without major incident, with the most notable moments being a couple of runs over the raised sausage kerb at the exit of Turn 20 in the final sector.

Max Verstappen avoided damage to his floor despite running over the length of the kerb trying to find time, while Charles Leclerc also gave it a clout that prompted Sauber to check over his car.