Vettel on top as problems delay Grosjean

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix second practice

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Red Bull took their customary positions at the head of the times sheets in the second practice session. Sebastian Vettel led Mark Webber by a tenth of a second.

However Romain Grosjean, who was quickest in the first session, never really got to show his potential as his run on the softer tyres was spoiled by a braking problem.

He had other problems during the session and pulled into the pits with eight minutes remaining.

Lewis Hamilton ended the session third quickest but was unhappy during his long run, concerned about the Mercedes’ pace and struggling to get free of traffic.

With Grosjean down in 12th, Kimi Raikkonen was the fastest of the two Lotuses in fourth place, and showed promising performance on his long run.

Both McLaren drivers were well in the top ten, separated by just four thousandths of a second, with Sergio Perez seven-tenths of a second off Vettel in sixth place.

The Ferrari drivers appeared to have better pace, both in the top ten, separated by Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber.

Some drivers experienced tyre problems during the session including Jenson Button and Paul di Resta, who both had punctures. Max Chilton also had a spin at the exit of turn one, without hitting anything.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’41.33535
22Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’41.4900.15532
310Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’41.6900.35537
47Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’41.7260.39142
59Nico RosbergMercedes1’41.7580.42341
66Sergio PerezMcLaren-Mercedes1’42.0060.67136
75Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’42.0100.67531
83Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’42.1710.83631
911Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’42.3240.98941
104Felipe MassaFerrari1’42.4401.10536
1112Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’42.5091.17439
128Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’42.6071.27218
1314Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’42.8061.47127
1416Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’42.9521.61736
1515Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’42.9981.66327
1619Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’43.1521.81729
1718Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’43.2711.93636
1817Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’43.5652.23036
1921Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’44.1382.80335
2022Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’44.4593.12435
2120Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’44.5253.19038
2223Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’45.5654.23027

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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15 comments on “Vettel on top as problems delay Grosjean”

  1. YOU KNOW…you know Grosjean;s doing something right when he’s making headlines even when his car has problems..

  2. And the universe makes sense again =P

  3. Raikkonen was super fast on race runs with very little or no degradation on softs. He was consistently faster in 2nd and 3rd sector than both RBs on mediums. Lotus 1 stopping for sure. RB on the other hand had a fair amount of tire deg on softs. They ran ~15 laps or smth like that on them and drop of was something like 1,5-2s. They had zero deg on medium, much like anyone else. 40 laps on a single medium set could be pushing it a bit for them so maybe OOP. Remains to be seen. Lotus is definitely the dark horse.

  4. Imagine the anarchy if Kimi passes Fred for 2nd in WDC by the end of the season….LOL

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      1st November 2013, 19:06

      if he finishes the 2 races @strifeforce, you may have already read the post about that.

      1. Good point lol. I posted that before i read about Lotus epically failing to pay him…

  5. In FP1, Kimi was in the short wheelbase car, while Grosjean was in the long wheelbase version.
    Can anyone tell me if it was the same in the afternoon, or if Kimi reverted to the long wheelbase car?
    Just wondering if that was to do with his better performance in FP2?
    Cheers

    1. @eurobrun as far as I’m aware, Kimi used the shorter wheelbase for FP2 too..

  6. petebaldwin (@)
    1st November 2013, 16:24

    Nice to see the others stand a chance of being competitive rather the Red Bulls having the best part of a second gap already.

    Hopefully if Mercedes don’t screw their strategy up, Vettel doesn’t have another couple of seconds in the bag and Lotus can sort Grosjean’s car out finally, we might have a race on our hands!

    1. The Mercedes and Lotuses will be 3-6 tenths down, the Ferraris 5 to 8 tenths, and I’m not sure anyone else can spoil the top eight… another boring vettel-fest. The only redeeming factor – his alternator might fail (thank you Renault.)

  7. Is it me or the Ferrari looks really bad this weekend? It seems that Mclaren and Sauber have a better overall pace.

    1. It seems that way. Although practice doesn’t always give us the full picture, it’s quite astonishing really, if you consider Ferrari’s early-season pace and McLaren’s season-long troubles.

      1. @yobo01 & @deej92
        Ferrari have always been rubbish and slow around this circuit, so to me, even as a Ferrari fan, their lack of pace this weekend doesn’t come as a surprise.

        They should be fast around Brazil though, it’s a circuit which has historically always suited them.

  8. Ferrari look to have gone backward again.. perhaps they brought an update, that always seems to do it lol

    1. I’m hoping its an update that could be useful for the 2014 season. Either ways .. it doesn’t look like it did a lot of good to their performance

      Gold help Ferrari for 2014

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