Hamilton heads Button in Abu Dhabi GP Second Practice

Lewis Hamilton completed a Friday sweep for McLaren by setting the pace in the second free practice session in Abu Dhabi, ahead of his team-mate Jenson Button.

But while the McLaren men carried on serenely, Turn 1 claimed two world champions with both Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso hitting the barriers during the session.

Alonso's accident was enough to call an early halt to his session, but he was third fastest ahead of Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa, Mark Webber and Vettel.

Michael Schumacher, who once again ran off track more than once during the session, was seventh ahead of Adrian Sutil, Paul di Resta and Kamui Kobayashi.

A busy start to the session saw di Resta establish himself at the top of the times with a 1m42.550s, but only momentarily until Webber usurped him with a time 0.528s faster.

There followed a period of Red Bull dominance in the opening 15 minutes as Vettel then beat Webber's time, only for the Australian to respond instantly with a 1m40.723s. So it continued as Vettel produced a 1m40.514s; then Webber a 1m40.598s - 0.084s between them. Webber's lap times dropped off after that, but Vettel went faster still to record a 1m40.197s.

With quarter of an hour gone it was Vettel, Webber and di Resta's Force India team-mate Sutil – all having set their laps on the experimental soft tyres – ahead of Hamilton and Schumacher's Mercedes.

Alonso changed all that by going second fastest in the Ferrari, which seemed to be behaving better in the twilight conditions of FP2. Making the most of the new soft tyres he then improved to a 1m40.141s, putting him at the top of the pile for the first time in the weekend. By the time he had completed his run, Alonso had reduced that mark to 1m39.971s.

As the session moved into the halfway mark, Red Bull and McLaren began working on their long runs, not assisted it has to be said by a spin for Mark Webber at Turn 18. There appeared to be very little in it between the two teams.

With 40 minutes to go, McLaren bolted on the official 'Abu Dhabi' softs (as opposed to the experimental ones Pirelli has been testing on Friday) for the first time and instantly Hamilton moved to the top with a 1m39.586s. Team-mate Button's best attempt was a 1m39.785s – good enough for second.

Red Bull was also out on the option Pirellis by this time as well, and it was now that the first major drama of the session took place as Vettel crashed on a Friday for the fourth time this season. The German also thumped the barriers in Turkey, Canada and Japan earlier this year.

On this occasion he was lying fifth in the times when he turned in on the kerbs at Turn 1, lost the rear and slid sideways in to the TecPro barriers. Little obvious damage was done to the RB7 beyond a broken front wing. So little in fact that he was able to rejoin the session after the car was recovered.

The resulting yellow flags in the crash zone prompted a period of calm as most people headed for the pits.

But the circuit had been back to 'green' for no more than 10 minutes when drama number two occurred, and this time it was Alonso who had backed his Ferrari into Turn 1.

The Spaniard had done significantly more visible damage to his car than Vettel with a broken rear wing and rear suspension – his day's track action most definitely concluded.

All this left McLaren, Webber and the rest to concentrate on their heavy-fuel, soft-tyred race pace as the session moved into its last 20 minutes, but there no more significant changes to the order.

Pos  Driver                Team                   Time              Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m39.586s           31
 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m39.785s  + 0.199  30
 3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m39.971s  + 0.385  20
 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m39.980s  + 0.394  34
 5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m40.104s  + 0.518  35
 6.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m40.132s  + 0.546  26
 7.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m40.553s  + 0.967  34
 8.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m40.951s  + 1.365  34
 9.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m41.021s  + 1.435  37
10.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m41.490s  + 1.904  34
11.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m41.565s  + 1.979  34
12.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.680s  + 2.094  33
13.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                1m41.947s  + 2.361  31
14.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.983s  + 2.397  34
15.  Bruno Senna           Renault                1m42.369s  + 2.783  36
16.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1m42.798s  + 3.212  35
17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth      1m42.910s  + 3.324  34
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault          1m43.562s  + 3.976  36
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault          1m44.050s  + 4.464  38
20.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m44.265s  + 4.679  41
21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth        1m45.486s  + 5.900  34
22.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth        1m46.142s  + 6.556  32
23.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth           1m46.249s  + 6.663  21
24.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth           1m46.328s  + 6.742  34

All Timing Unofficial

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