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Valtteri Bottas bounced again to high the occasions forward of his returning Mercedes team-mate and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, in Friday’s busy second free observe for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Finn, embarrassed by the superior tempo of Hamilton’s stand-in George Russell, ‘borrowed’ from Williams, eventually weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix, reacted with a decided displaying on the Yas Marina Circuit. Bottas clocked a finest lap in 1 min 36.276sec to outpace Hamilton, again after a bout of Covid-19 that pressured him to overlook an F1 race for the primary time, by 0.203 seconds. For Bottas, it was a return to his acquainted function as ‘quickest on Friday’. Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull, seven-tenths adrift, on the finish of a session that started and completed with tyre-testing, and was additionally interrupted by a red-flag interval after Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo’s Ferrari engine burst into flames.
His under-pressure Red Bull team-mate Alex Albon was fourth forward of Lando Norris of McLaren, Renault’s Esteban Ocon, Sergio Perez of Racing Point and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.
Daniel Ricciardo was ninth for Renault forward of Lance Stroll within the second Racing Point whereas Russell, final weekend’s ‘heartbreak hero’, ended the session within the Williams pit after energy issues.
After heat, dry and sunlit day, the second ‘twilight’ session started in related circumstances because the solar went down, the drivers ventured out to check Pirelli’s newest prototype tyres on which everybody needed to full eight timed laps.
Initially, the 2 Mercedes males have been quickest by a full second earlier than Hamilton was known as in for a steering wheel swap. The testing over, he resumed on mediums and went high in 1:36.479. Bottas then beat him by two-tenths.
When they switched to softs, Hamilton’s first flying lap – in 1:36.097 – was deleted for operating huge at Turn 21. Bottas’ lap ended prematurely with a twitchy exit from Turn One the place Gasly spun.
With 38 minutes remaining, it was groups so as with the 2 Mercedes forward of the 2 Red Bulls and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, who will begin Sunday’s race from the again of the grid after accumulating a penalty for taking a brand new engine.
Haas’s Kevin Magnussen joined Formula One’s newest race winner with a penalty after becoming a brand new electronics package deal.
At the sharp finish, Verstappen confirmed his tempo with the quickest first sector time earlier than backing off when he caught Perez on a long term. His subsequent lap was deleted for exceeding monitor limits at Turn 21. He stayed third, one-tenth down on the ‘black arrows’.
In the closing minutes, two vehicles betrayed the age of their engines with George Russell’s power-unit issuing smoke after which Kimi Raikkonen’s bursting into flames.
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The Briton managed to nurse his Williams to the pits, however the 41-year-old Finn pulled up at Turn Seven the place he took a marshal’s extinguisher to place out the hearth.
The session was crimson flagged with 17 minutes remaining. After ten, the motion resumed with Hamilton recovering from lack of gears within the pit-lane to re-start and re-join for a ultimate fling.
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