Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix 2019 Qualifying: Results, Times from Friday's Practice
November 29, 2019
Valtteri Bottas topped the timesheets in both first and second practice in Abu Dhabi on Friday as the final weekend of the 2019 Formula One season got under way.
In the second session of the day, he clocked a fastest lap time of one minute, 36.256 seconds to edge his Mercedes team-mate, world champion Lewis Hamilton, into second.
The Finn also had a coming together with Romain Grosjean during the session, which drew a late red flag.
Bottas was fastest in the first session with a lap of 1:36.957 at the Yas Marina Circuit, putting him ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
FP2 Recap
Here all the full standings for the evening's action:
The main drama of the second session came late on when Bottas, 20 minutes from time, took an unnecessary dive down the inside of Grosjean's Haas.
The Frenchman didn't see the Mercedes driver, turned in, and the pair collided, causing significant damage to both cars:
Remarkably, Bottas was able to get back out on track before the end of the session, but it marked the end of Grosjean's day.
Earlier in the session, Verstappen had set the pace before he was pushed down the standings by Mercedes and Ferrari.
Charles Leclerc did well to avoid causing major damage to his car when he clipped the wall early in proceedings.
FP1 Recap
Here are the timesheets from the opening practice session:
Leclerc, Bottas and Hamilton exchanged the fastest lap times early in the action, but that was as good as it got for Ferrari.
The Italian outfit have endured a mistake-ridden season that prevented them from really competing for the world championship.
And there was another from Sebastian Vettel late in Friday's opening session.
A slight misjudgement at Turn 19 saw the German spin and drive his left-rear wheel into the barriers:
Sky Sports F1 @SkySportsF1Disaster for Sebastian Vettel in the closing minutes of the session💥 He is into the barriers at Turn 19, and the session is over. 📺Live on Sky Sports F1 📱Live on the App and Sky Go: https://t.co/BFwOUmJQSn 💻Live blog: https://t.co/CkqLNAZAQx #SkyF1 | #AbuDhabiGP🇦🇪 https://t.co/IZsIveQtiQ
It meant a premature end to the session, which had already been interrupted when Daniel Ricciardo ground to a halt with smoke coming from his engine and oil leaking on to the track:
Ricciardo's Renault team-mate, Nico Hulkenberg, finished 10th fastest in potentially his final first practice session in F1.