Formula 1 News: Leclerc tops red-flag impacted Practice 2

Charles Leclerc turned the fastest lap in Practice 2 of the Abu Dhabi GP in a session stopped by Red Flags for Carlos Sainz Jr and Nico Hulkenberg.

While one side of the Ferrari garage was working hard to repair the #55 of Carlos Sainz. Jr. after the Spaniard wadded up his Ferrari in Turn 3 early in the session, Leclerc put Ferrari on top with a lap of 1m24.809s.

Lando Norris put his McLaren-Mercedes in 2nd, just 0.043s back in a session that featured only about 30 minutes of running time.

Max Verstappen was 3rd quick in his Red Bull Honda, 0.173s behind after not running in FP1 and running limited laps in FP2.

Valtteri Bottas was 4th for Alfa Romeo, 0.215s behind the Ferrari, while Sergio Perez rounded out the top-5 in the #11 Red Bull Honda.

Nico Hulkenberg wadded up his Haas when he ran out of talent exiting Turn 1 and clouted the outside barriers.

Very few teams will feel confident heading into the weekend, their programs completely disrupted by those two red flags. And as for Haas and Ferrari, they now have a long night rebuilding their respective cars, while Hulkenberg and Sainz will be nursing wounded pride tonight.

So it is Ferrari man Leclerc who is fastest over one lap on Friday, can he grab pole tomorrow – which would be a first for the Scuderia in Abu Dhabi? Expect Verstappen to have a thing or two to say about it though, and Norris can’t be discounted either.

At least three teams in it, which bodes very well for an exciting qualifying.

Practice 2 Results