Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton fastest in second practice



The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix can be seen on 5 Live and the website.

The decision to highlight the consequences of dirty driving before the title decider in Abu Dhabi was supported by Mercedes.

The rules for taking points away for "unsportsmanlike" driving or behavior are outlined by the governing body of the sport.

Wolff said it was a good deterrent.

Consistency of decisions was called for by the Red Bull team principal.

Whoever finishes ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the race will win the title.

Verstappen has one more victory than Hamilton, so he would win the title if both retire or crash out together.

The sporting code is highlighted in the event notes of the race director in order to warn the drivers to race cleanly on Sunday.

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which Verstappen was fined three times for driving violations, once for overtaking off the track, once for forcing Hamilton off the track and once for braking in front, was a bad-natured and controversial event.

Verstappen was fourth in Friday practice, 0.641 seconds behind Hamilton.

Wolff said that it was good that the international sporting code was remembered after the recent controversy.

He welcomed the decision to remind the drivers what is on and what is not on.

"I can see why Lewis and Toto would want to push for that, but nobody is going into the race saying it's going to end in a crash."

There has been a lot of speculation about it but our focus is on trying to win this on track and do it at the end.

Consistency of stewarding of penalties is something that drives people more mad than anything else.

The sporting code has always been here. Nobody wants to see the championships end up in front of the stewards.

In Brazil and Saudi Arabia, Verstappen was not punished for forcing Hamilton off the track when he was defending his position.

Verstappen said on Thursday that he doesn't think he has been treated the same by the stewards as other drivers, and that he doesn't see reason to change his driving.

Red Bull's Christian Horner and Mercedes' Toto Wolff have had a lot of verbal sparring.

What happened during practice?

The time gap between Hamilton and Verstappen suggests that Friday practice did not give an accurate picture of the performance of the two cars.

The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and Alpine's Esteban Ocon separated Hamilton from Verstappen on the timing sheets.

Verstappen was ahead of Perez by 0.068 seconds.

Alpine's Fernando Alonso was sixth quickest, ahead of Alpha Tauri's Yuki Tsunoda, the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and the second Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly.

The session ended a little early when Kimi Raikkonen crashed at Turn 14 in the final race of his career.

The veteran Finn was uninjured.

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