Leclerc fastest, Saint over obstacles in the second test at the Abu Dhabi GP

Teams have been waiting for this second phase of free practice in Abu Dhabi to collect tire data ahead of the 22nd and final GP of the Formula 1 season on Sunday. This is because these tests only took place at dusk, at a time representative of the qualification tests. and the weekend race.

But their plans were not to end there, as just after 9 minutes, Carlos Sainz’s accident caused the red flags to be raised for more than 25 minutes. After a double four, the Spaniard crashed the Ferrari SF-23 into the guard rails on the outside of Turn 2 in Yas Marina.

The 29-year-old remained uninjured and got out of the car on his own to return to the Scuderia workshop. He lost control of the SF-23 due to a sudden jerk of the tail, which he reported over the radio to his engineers was caused by the instability of the airflow of a car in front.

The tests were stopped in order to remove the badly damaged Ferrari – over its left side – and repair the barrier at the scene of the accident. The interruption lasted 25 minutes, but just seconds after the cars got back on the track, another accident involving Nico Hülkenberg interrupted the process again.

The German lost control of the Haas at the exit of Turn 1 and crashed into the inside guardrail after a four-way bend, where he broke the rear wing and damaged the right rear wheel. This time the standstill lasted much shorter, only the car had to be removed as the metal barrier was not damaged.

15 minutes before the end of the race, the green light was given again at the exit of the pit lane, whereupon the drivers rushed back onto the track in a great hurry. The rush was even greater for Max Verstappen, who overtook the two Mercedes at the pit exit and in the tunnel – while Hamilton and Russell slowed down to secure a favorable position in the traffic on the racetrack.

After the green light, the drivers took to the track primarily on soft tires in order to collect data about the lap sets on these tires before the race. Therefore fuel quantities were higher, so we can assume that these times were representative of the qualifying test times on Saturday afternoon (11/25, 4:00 p.m.).

Early on, Charles Leclerc set the first time in the other Ferrari (1:24.809), followed shortly afterwards by Lando Norris in the McLaren MCL60 with 43 milliseconds. In his last two laps, Max Verstappen was almost two tenths behind Leclerc.

Valtteri Bottas’ fourth time in the Alfa Romeo was impressive, ahead of Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull RB19, as the top 15 were within eight and a half tenths of a second.

Until Saind’s failure, Russell was half a second faster on the medium tire than Alha Tauri’s Daniel Ricciardo. However, these were racing simulations that were also aborted, so that no conclusions can be drawn about the teams’ racing pace even with this average tire.