Team Summary:
The second Friday practice session for the 2019 Abu Dhabi GP would get
underway with a setting sun. Raikkonen would be the first out and he would
set a 1m:39.990 followed by Grosjean and Giovinazzi. But Leclerc would go
quickest with a 1m:39.689 using the hard tyre while Raikkonen was on the
medium. ON the medium Magnussen would set a 1m:39.248 to be quickest. Kvyat
was now second and Raikkonen third. Other drivers would go quicker with
Leclerc would set a 1m:37.997 followed now by Perez and Stroll. Leclerc was
on the hard tyre and the Racing Point cars the medium. Albon was now in
second using the medium tyre. Also on the medium were Verstappen who was now
quickest with a 1m:37.145 followed by Bottas. Leclerc was third followed by
Vettel, Albon, and Hamilton sixth.
With twenty minutes completed the order was Verstappen, Bottas, Leclerc,
Vettel, Albon, Hamilton, Perez, Stroll, Sainz, Kvyat, Ricciardo, Magnussen,
Raikkonen, Gasly, Grosjean, Norris, Giovinazzi, Russell, Hulkenberg, Kubica.
Hamilton was able to move into third. With half an hour of the session
completed the track would empty with just Leclerc out running on the soft.
But he would make contact with the barrier at Turn 19 but was able to return
to the pits. This would see the track now empty. Both Williams drivers would
come out for a second run again on the soft tyre. More drivers were coming
out on soft tyres. Bottas on the soft tyre would set a 1m:36.256 to be
quickest with Hamilton second and Vettel third. Verstappen would move into
third as Leclerc return after his car had been checked after his contact
with the barrier.
After their second soft tyre ruin both Williams drivers were again slowest.
Giovinazzi would spin at Turn 19 but would not make contact with the barrier
and would continue. Vettel was now in fourth closing the gap to Bottas who
was quickest. With twenty minutes remaining we would have Bottas and
Grosjean make contact as Bottas tried to pass the Haas with a very late
move. With debris on the track a red flag would come out. The track would
empty with Bottas still quickest from Hamilton, Leclerc, Vettel, Verstappen,
Albon, Grosjean, Perez, Kvyat and Gasly. This would ruin quite a few teams
longer runs. The session would restart with around ten minutes remaining.
The Williams drivers were back out running their split strategy for their
tyre runs. The session would end with the top ten would remaining unchanged
while the Williams drivers remained slowest with George 0.9 ahead of Robert.
The team would come away with the view that it was a productive session.
Robert Kubica:
With ten minutes completed Robert would come out using the soft tyre. Robert
would set a 1m:41.190 but such was his time that he would be behind a group
of drivers all on the hard tyre. Robert would improve with a 1m:40.666 to
just behind his team-mate. Robert would also return for a second run on the
soft tyre. Robert had only made a slight improvement on his second run with
a 1m:40.567. A further improvement of 1m:40.455 but he would remain slowest.
Robert would pit after a seven lap soft tyre run. Robert would return again
on the soft tyre but would switch to the medium. With a red flag he would
pit after a six lap on the medium tyre. Robert would return with the green
flag again using the medium tyre. he would complete nine laps with the end
of the session.
George Russell:
George would be first out for Williams in the session running on the hard
tyre. He would pit after a single lap. he would return this time on the soft
tyres. George would set a 1m:40.503 to be 17th. He would drop to 19th but
with a 1m:40.202 he was 18th ahead of Hulkenberg but the Renault was on the
hard tyre. But George would drop to 19th 0.484 ahead of his team-mate.
George would pit having completed six laps on the soft tyre. With just under
an hour remaining George would return again on the soft tyre. George would
set a 1m:39.512 to be 13th but would drop to 15th. He would drop to 18th
with only his team-mate and Hulkenberg behind. He would fall to19th as the
Renault went quicker. George would pit after a five lap run. With thirty
eight minutes remaining George would return for a third run. George would
set tyres in the low 1m:45s as he started his hard tyre run. But this run
would end as a result of a red flag seeing him complete a nine lap run. With
the restart George was back out on the hard tyre. With the end of the
session George would complete nine laps. |