Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP2: Norris from Piastri, Verstappen struggles
F1 NewsFriday, 06 December 2024 at 12:30
Lando Norris was the fastest driver at the end of the second free practice for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as McLaren showed strong pace with Oscar Piastri second fastest.
On the other hand, four-time Formula 1 champion, Max Verstappen struggled to get his car in the proper operating window as he suffered from understeer consistently complaining about the ride as well as the front axle of his RB20.
Verstappen, who announced on Friday that he is expecting his first child with his girlfriend, Kelly Piquet, finished the session 17th fastest having missed FP1 with Red Bull giving Isack Hadjar the chance to driver their car.
Nico Hulkenberg impressed in his final Friday with Haas and went third fastest ahead of Carlos Sainz, fourth in the Ferrari while Lewis Hamilton was fifth.
Charles Leclerc, who will serve a ten-place grid penalty on the starting grid of Sunday's race for taking a new battery, was sixth fastest in the sister Ferrari. He missed out on half of the first session as the team installed the new battery.
Valtteri Bottas was seventh fastest in the Sauber while Kevin Magnussen was eighth as two Haas cars made the top ten.
Alex Albon was ninth fastest, but missed the final stage of the session after retiring with what he reported as a driveshaft issue.
Yuki Tsunoda, who also missed FP1, was tenth in the VCARB. George Russell was 13th in the Mercedes with Sergio Perez 14th.
From what we saw in FP2, Ferrari's chances to fight McLaren for the 2024 F1 constructors' championship are getting slimmer as the weekend develops especially with the form Norris, in the McLaren showed both in qualifying runs and the long race pace.
Buildup towards FP2
The first practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw Leclerc going fastest as Ferrari's form looked strong despite the session not being representative given the time of day it take place in compared to qualifying and the race, which makes FP2 a better gauge of the cars' speed.
Six rookies took place in the first practice session, so all regular driver will be back in their cars for FP2 while Jack Doohan will be the only newcomer as he replaced Esteban Ocon at Alpine and started his full time F1 career earlier than expected.
Hamilton was under investigation for impeding Norris in FP1, but the stewards cleared him after looking into the incident which was labeled a misunderstanding.
Furthermore, Albon and Franco Colapinto will drop five places on the starting grid of Sunday's grand prix as both of them will be taking new gearboxes.
FP2 Session Highlights
As the sun started to set over Abu Dhabi's Yas Island, FP2 started with track temperatures at 33 degrees Celsius, 11 less than FP1, while air temperature dropped just one degree to 27.
Without any delays, the drivers made their ways out on track for what would be a crucial session where running conditions are identical to those of qualifying and the race which means the data collected will be very valuable.
The Medium tyre was the compound of choice for all the drivers at the start of the session.
Russell soon reported vibration with his steering rack on his Mercedes. He was complaining about his brakes in the first practice session.
Ten minutes into the session, Jack Doohan had a huge lockup going into Turn 6 but kept the car on track.
Verstappen reported there was no power from his Honda power unit at lower RPM and was also complaining about understeer on his RB20. He was sixth fastest at that point; 15 minutes into the session.
Verstappen was soon asked about his ride of his RB20 to which he responded that it was "bad" and that the front axle was not working.
Russell then reported that the cockpit of his Mercedes W15 was "reasonably toasty".
Then Leclerc rode the kerbs hard at the exit of Turn 5 and reported to his team that he may have destroyed the plank. His team asked him to box for inspection.
With 35 minutes remaining, the drivers were back in the pits getting ready for the next run, qualifying simulation.
Colapinto had a couple of moments off track the second at Turn 9, but kept going. However his floor took a beating and then he was back in the pits as the Williams mechanics worked on it.
Verstappen again reported that his front axle just "doesn't grip up".
Traffic will be an issue in Abu Dhabi and Leclerc was not happy complaining over the radio: "Half of the grid is sleeping."
Norris after that had a moment at Turn 1 on his second push lap on Softs and had to abort.
With 15 minutes remaining, Williams retired the car of Colapinto as they have deemed the damage to the floor irreparable.
Soon after Williams were hit by more issues, this time on Albon's car as the Thai driver limped back to the pits.
"I don't know. Something in the driveshaft," Albon said on the team radio.
In the final ten minutes of the session, the teams were back on track doing their race simulations.
Verstappen's struggles continued and while on his long run, he reported that he hit the kerb hard out of Turn 3 and may have damaged the plank on his RB20.
Russell then complained about sliding of his Mercedes W15 while Leclerc was surprised when his engineer informed him about McLaren's race pace.
"They are really fast," the Monegasque responded.
How they finished
Norris' FP2-topping time was 1:23.517, 0.234s clear of Piastri in the sister car while Hulkenberg was third fastest, 0.462s off the pace.
Sainz was fourth fastest, 0.582s slower from Norris and 0.020s clear of Hamilton in fifth, the latter in turn 0.082s ahead of the other Ferrari of Leclerc; sixth fastest.
Bottas posted a 1:24.230 to go seventh fastest in the Sauber and 0.005s ahead of Magnussen, the Dane eighth fastest in the Haas.
Albon was ninth, 0.752s off the pace while Tsunoda was tenth, 0.228s behind the Williams driver.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP2 Classification
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