Lewis Hamilton continued his domination of the timing sheets as he headed the second free practice session in Abu Dhabi.

As dusk gave way to darkness the Mercedes teammates of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg once again stamped their season-long authority on the timing sheets. In both the qualifying simulation and long run pace the Silver Arrows had little in the way of competition. In the second of the one-and-a-half sessions of the day McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen emerged as the “closest” competitor in third.

The future Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel slotted his Red Bull into fourth ahead of Williams’ Valterri Bottas. The long-run pace of the Williams didn’t suggest that they will be a nuisance to Mercedes in the race; the closest in lap-time to the mighty Mercedes turned out to be the ever-consistent Daniel Ricciardo. The Red Bull driver earlier clocked the sixth fastest time.

Kimi Raikkonen slotted his Ferrari into seventh place but remained decidedly off the pace in the long-run phase of the session. Teammate Fernando Alonso could only complete two laps as his Ferrari ground to a halt with a suspected electronic issue.

It was announced that Lotus’ Romain Grosjean will incur a whopping twenty place grid penalty after the Frenchman had to fit a sixth power unit of the season. Should Grosjean not be able to serve the full penalty on the grid he will be given time penalties during Sunday’s race. Insult to injury.