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Lewis Hamilton leads second Abu Dhabi Grand Prix practice too

Lewis Hamilton ended the second free practice session for Formula 1's world championship deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on top of the timesheets

After failing to complete a proper fast lap on his first set of soft-compound tyres and complaining about flatspots, Mercedes driver Hamilton deposed team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg from first place with 50 minutes remaining by 0.079 seconds, with both using ultra-soft Pirellis.

This came shortly after Rosberg had knocked Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, who was the first to go fastest using the ultra-softs having bettered team-mate Kimi Raikkonen's super-soft time, off top spot.

Vettel later suffered a gearbox failure with 10 minutes remaining and stopped on track.

Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were fourth and fifth and separated by just one thousandth of a second, the latter improving on his second quick lap on the ultra-softs.

Verstappen later complained he was losing power coming off corners and that it was "like a handbrake" on corner entry, with Ricciardo earlier suffering his own brief loss of power at Turn 1.

Valtteri Bottas, who was briefly fastest early in the session on super-softs and came close to reclaiming the spot after dropping behind both Ferraris, ended up seventh ahead of Force India duo Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.

Felipe Massa rounded out the top 10 during the final Friday of his F1 career.

Fernando Alonso was 11th fastest, with McLaren team-mate Jenson Button slotting into 12th in the second half of the session - albeit 0.457s slower - after having a brief off-track moment at Turn 8 earlier on.

Romain Grosjean was 13th fastest, although his session was interrupted by a water pressure problem that led to the Haas team calling him to return to the pits after 17 laps.

The two Manor drivers has a solid session, with Esteban Ocon and Pascal Wehrlein in 16th and 17th and separated by 0.154s, putting them ahead of the Saubers of Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson and Kevin Magnussen's Renault.

Toro Rosso duo Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniil Kvyat completed only nine laps between them and sat out much of the 90-minute session.

This followed Daniil Kvyat suffered his second left-rear puncture of the day, having suffered a similar fate in practice one, and spinning at Turn 17.

He returned to the pits, with F1 technical delegate Jo Bauer and the team inspecting Kvyat's wheel, and neither Toro Rosso returned to the track again.

PRACTICE TWO TIMES:

Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m40.861s - 36
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m40.940s 0.079s 38
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m41.130s 0.269s 31
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m41.389s 0.528s 24
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m41.390s 0.529s 33
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m41.464s 0.603s 34
7 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes 1m41.959s 1.098s 35
8 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m42.041s 1.180s 35
9 Nico Hulkenberg Force India/Mercedes 1m42.264s 1.403s 36
10 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m42.268s 1.407s 36
11 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 1m42.366s 1.505s 33
12 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda 1m42.823s 1.962s 24
13 Esteban Gutierrez Haas/Ferrari 1m43.012s 2.151s 35
14 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m43.108s 2.247s 17
15 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m43.272s 2.411s 33
16 Esteban Ocon Manor/Mercedes 1m43.600s 2.739s 35
17 Pascal Wehrlein Manor/Mercedes 1m43.754s 2.893s 33
18 Felipe Nasr Sauber/Ferrari 1m43.903s 3.042s 36
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m44.045s 3.184s 34
20 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1m44.117s 3.256s 25
21 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso/Ferrari 1m44.478s 3.617s 5
22 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Ferrari 1m45.948s 5.087s 4

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