Lewis Hamilton maintained his place at the top of the standings in second practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, leading Nico Rosberg by 0.079s.

Having been quickest during the opening session of the title showdown at the Yas Marina Circuit, Hamilton set the pace on the ultrasoft tyre on Friday evening, posting a 1:40.861. Rosberg had failed to improve on his soft tyre lap in first practice – leading to a gap of over 0.3s between the two championship contenders – but he hit back in FP2 to post a 1:40.940.

• AS IT HAPPENED: 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – FP2

Sebastian Vettel was third quickest for Ferrari with an impressive lap of 1:41.130. Just a quarter of a second off Hamilton’s pace, Vettel suggested the title rivals could have two teams to worry about after Red Bull was the nearest challenger in the opening session. However, the German’s session ended early has he was forced to stop between turns 18 and 19 below the Yas Viceroy hotel with a suspected gearbox failure.

Max Verstappen was fourth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, with the two Red Bull drivers separated by just 0.001s, but over half a second slower than Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen was less than 0.1s further back in sixth place, and the Finn was also the last driver within a second of the Mercedes pace.

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Track conditions were much more representative for all the teams in FP2, which started at 1700 – the same time as both qualifying and the race – and continued through sunset and finished in darkness.

Valtteri Bottas was seventh for Williams, less than 0.1s clear of Sergio Perez in the Force India, with Nico Hulkenberg and Felipe Massa rounding out the top ten ahead of the McLaren pair of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. Having missed out on a lot of running in FP1, Button was again slow out of the blocks in FP2 but recovered to complete 24 laps.

The bottom 12 cars were all in team order save for Jolyon Palmer in 15th and Kevin Magnussen in 20th place, some 0.7s apart. The two Toro Rosso drivers ended the session at the bottom of the times following concerns regarding their cars, with Daniil Kvyat suffering his second left rear puncture of the day.

The first failure saw Kvyat complete just four laps and he managed the same in FP2 as another puncture saw the Russian spin off at high speed at Turn 16. While lucky to not hit the barrier, Kvyat limped back to the pits and didn’t run again as FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer inspected the car, with Carlos Sainz also stopping running after just five laps.

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Chris Medland’s 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix preview

FEATURE: Hamilton v Rosberg: 2016 F1 drivers’ title permutations

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Pos Driver Team Time Laps

01
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
1:40.861
36

02
Nico Rosberg
Mercedes
1:40.940
38

03
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
1:41.130
31

04
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
1:41.389
24

05
Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull
1:41.390
33

06
Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari
1:41.464
34

07
Valtteri Bottas
Williams
1:41.959
35

08
Sergio Perez
Force India
1:42.041
35

09
Nico Hulkenberg
Force India
1:42.264
36

10
Felipe Massa
Williams
1:42.268
36

11
Fernando Alonso
McLaren
1:42.366
33

12
Jenson Button
McLaren
1:42.823
24

13
Esteban Gutierrez
Haas
1:43.012
35

14
Romain Grosjean
Haas
1:43.108
17

15
Jolyon Palmer
Renault
1:43.272
33

16
Esteban Ocon
Manor
1:43.600
35

17
Pascal Wehrlein
Manor
1:43.754
33

18
Felipe Nasr
Sauber
1:43.903
36

19
Marcus Ericsson
Sauber
1:44.045
34

20
Kevin Magnussen
Renault
1:44.117
25

21
Carlos Sainz
Toro Rosso
1:44.478
5

22
Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso
1:45.948
4