Abu Dhabi GP. FP2 Report. Heikki Kovalainen grabbed top spot in the evening practice session in Abu Dhabi with his McLaren, finding a lap right at the end of the session to pip his team mate Lewis Hamilton, while the new champion also figured strongly again.Kovalainen set his quickest time right at the end of the 90 minute run, with the sun well and truly set and the track illuminated by floodlights. He took over top spot from Hamilton, who had looked set to add his FP1 top time with a second in this one, but failed to hang on at the last.
Jenson Button was third in his Brawn GP car, after finishing second in FP1, showing that now the shackles of the championship race are off him, he is enjoying driving once again. He ended ahead of Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull and the impressive Kamui Kobayashi, who put his Toyota in 5th place.
Sebastien Buemi finished 6th, in another promising run for Toro Rosso, with Mark Webber seventh for Red Bull. Rubens Barrichello, Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top half of the timesheets.
Adrian Sutil finished 11th, despite struggling with further brake issues after his problems in FP1. He suffered a spin after a big lock-up early on and lost more track time while his car was checked over.
It was a relatively dismal day for Ferrari, with Raikkonen creeping into the top ten late one, but Giancarlo Fisichella ending down in 17th. Renault had an even worse time of it. Fernando Alonso only 16th and Romain Grosjean 18th.
It was another action-packed session at the new Yas Marina track, with drivers running wide and locking up all over the place as they sought to learn the limits of the new track. The setting sun caused a few problems at the start of the session, with sunlight reflecting across the start-finish straight early on and Jarno Trulli complaining about glare from his windscreen.
Meanwhile, Robert Kubica had a miserable time, with his BMW engine expiring early on and adding a further shadow to BMW's final weekend in F1.
All in all though, it seems likely to be a straight fight between McLaren, Brawn GP and Red Bull for the victory this weekend. And McLaren seem to be the fastest of them all.
| FP2 Times | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Laps |
| 1 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren - Mercedes | 1:41.307 | 35 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren - Mercedes | 1:41.504 | 34 |
| 3 | Jenson Button | Brawn - Mercedes | 1:41.541 | 39 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull - Renault | 1:41.591 | 37 |
| 5 | Kamui Kobayashi | Toyota | 1:41.636 | 34 |
| 6 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | 1:41.683 | 37 |
| 7 | Mark Webber | Red Bull - Renault | 1:41.684 | 34 |
| 8 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn - Mercedes | 1:41.831 | 38 |
| 9 | Nico Rosberg | Williams - Toyota | 1:41.931 | 39 |
| 10 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:41.987 | 39 |
| 11 | Adrian Sutil | Force India - Mercedes | 1:42.180 | 28 |
| 12 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams - Toyota | 1:42.245 | 36 |
| 13 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:42.278 | 36 |
| 14 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:42.409 | 30 |
| 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India - Mercedes | 1:42.530 | 33 |
| 16 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:42.782 | 29 |
| 17 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari | 1:42.932 | 37 |
| 18 | Romain Grosjean | Renault | 1:43.021 | 37 |
| 19 | Jamie Alguersuari | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | 1:43.022 | 39 |
| 20 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:43.708 | 13 |
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