Hamilton breaks his track record in second practice

2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix second practice

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Lewis Hamilton established a new track record for the Yas Marina circuit in second practice, beating the previous best time he set six years ago.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix practice in pictures
But Ferrari and Red Bull weren’t far off the pace of the Mercedes. Both the red cars lapped under Hamilton’s 2011 time of 1’38.434 and Daniel Ricciardo was inside it as well.

When the chequered flag fell on the session Sebastian Vettel was just 0.149s slower than Hamilton on the same ultra-soft tyres, with Ricciardo a similar gap back.

Valtteri Bottas, who did his qualifying simulation run shortly before his team mate, was around two-thirds of a second slower. There was a similar gap between the Red Bull pair, Max Verstappen ending the session in sixth place.

The Force India pair were next-quickest, Esteban Ocon just one-hundredth of a second slower than Sergio Perez despite sitting out the first practice session. Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso completed the top ten.

Stoffel Vandoorne was 12th-fastest in the other McLaren, despite a high-speed spin at turn 20 early in the session. He was fractionally slower than Felipe Massa, the quicker of the two Williams drivers.

It was another trying Friday for Romain Grosjean who ended the session with the slowest time after a spin. He was also accused of holding up Ricciardo during one of the Red Bull driver’s first quick laps.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’37.87739
25Sebastian VettelFerrari1’38.0260.14936
33Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’38.1800.30333
47Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’38.3520.47535
577Valtteri BottasMercedes1’38.5370.66033
633Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’38.8941.01733
711Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’39.3231.44633
831Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’39.3331.45636
927Nico HulkenbergRenault1’39.5291.65241
1014Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’39.5591.68228
1119Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’39.6351.75836
122Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Honda1’39.6711.79431
1355Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’40.2012.32438
1418Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’40.3292.45230
1510Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Renault1’40.6942.81739
1620Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’41.1283.25131
1794Pascal WehrleinSauber-Ferrari1’41.2703.39343
189Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’41.3023.42540
1928Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Renault1’41.4963.61939
208Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’41.5603.68312

Second practice visual gaps

Lewis Hamilton – 1’37.877

+0.149 Sebastian Vettel – 1’38.026

+0.303 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’38.180

+0.475 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’38.352

+0.660 Valtteri Bottas – 1’38.537

+1.017 Max Verstappen – 1’38.894

+1.446 Sergio Perez – 1’39.323

+1.456 Esteban Ocon – 1’39.333

+1.652 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’39.529

+1.682 Fernando Alonso – 1’39.559

+1.758 Felipe Massa – 1’39.635

+1.794 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’39.671

+2.324 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’40.201

+2.452 Lance Stroll – 1’40.329

+2.817 Pierre Gasly – 1’40.694

+3.251 Kevin Magnussen – 1’41.128

+3.393 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’41.270

+3.425 Marcus Ericsson – 1’41.302

+3.619 Brendon Hartley – 1’41.496

+3.683 Romain Grosjean – 1’41.560

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

Best times by tyre

DriverTeamBest ultra-soft timeUltra-soft gapBest super-soft timeSuper-soft gap
Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’37.8771’38.912
Valtteri BottasMercedes1’38.5370.661’39.7580.846
Daniel RicciardoRed Bull1’38.1800.3031’39.3460.434
Max VerstappenRed Bull1’38.8941.0171’40.0891.177
Sebastian VettelFerrari1’38.0260.1491’39.7610.849
Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’38.3520.4751’39.7900.878
Sergio PerezForce India1’39.3231.4461’40.5531.641
Esteban OconForce India1’39.3331.4561’41.0562.144
Felipe MassaWilliams1’39.6351.7581’41.6652.753
Lance StrollWilliams1’40.3292.452None
Fernando AlonsoMcLaren1’39.5591.6821’40.8041.892
Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren1’39.6711.794None
Brendon HartleyToro Rosso1’41.4963.6191’42.6163.704
Pierre GaslyToro Rosso1’40.8692.9921’40.6941.782
Romain GrosjeanHaas1’41.7303.8531’41.5602.648
Kevin MagnussenHaas1’41.1283.2511’42.2063.294
Nico HulkenbergRenault1’39.5291.6521’41.2592.347
Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’40.2012.3241’40.9732.061
Marcus EricssonSauber1’41.3023.4251’42.1493.237
Pascal WehrleinSauber1’41.2703.3931’42.0293.117

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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11 comments on “Hamilton breaks his track record in second practice”

  1. 1.5sec is the gap to reach top 3? It seems an aby$$.

    1. top 3 drivers from a team outside the top3 teams? The slowest of the top 3 teams drivers is only 0.5 ahead of Perez.

  2. Hamilton fastest – Hamilton breaks track record.

    Vettel fastest with similar gap – Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull covered by a tenth.

    It’s practise guys! Stop hyping things up just yet and these articles could do with less fan boyish titles. Things can turn out very different on Sunday.

    1. @mamba I don’t understand your objection at all.

      This sport is about the pursuit of speed, among other things. Hamilton broke the track record today. How can you possibly suggest that is not newsworthy?

      1. @keithcollantine four cars broke the original lap record today. To me singling out just one of them seems to be a bit biased. Yes Hamilton was the fastest but as with FP1 things are very tight at the top. The title to me just seemed a bit too biased to the events that occurred. I’m sorry if my comment was taken offensive – I clearly was a bit hot headed at the time so could certainly have phrased things much better. Please accept my apologies. I just wanted to point out the fact that things are very close with four cars breaking the lap record and not just one as the title would suggest.

        1. The new track record should be the headline (especially as the driver in question was the previous record holder)? Did you not read the rest?

          Lewis Hamilton established a new track record for the Yas Marina circuit in second practice, beating the previous best time he set six years ago.

          But Ferrari and Red Bull weren’t far off the pace of the Mercedes. Both the red cars lapped under Hamilton’s 2011 time of 1’38.434 and Daniel Ricciardo was inside it as well.

    2. @mamba That’s funny.. The headline is probably the least “fan boyish” in the entire F1 media mate….

      1. You’re wright but bias in most media towards Hamilton is so ridiculous sometimrs that you take your frustration out on the wrong people.

  3. Loving the Perez-Ocon delta, basically nothing between them.

  4. Any information about the rear problems Verstappen’s RB13 had? He complained about his rear tires, the engineers spent a lot of time on the rear section of the RB13 but i do not see any info .
    He was off pace by a considerable margin. Compared with his first FP performance remarkable.

  5. bottas dethroned hamilton with a staggering show of speed.
    turned out to be a short record by hamilton after all :-)

Comments are closed.