Abu Dhabi GP: Hamilton strikes back in FP2

The Mercedes driver clocked a 1m37.877s to finish 0.149 seconds clear of Vettel, with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo a tenth and a half further back in third.

Hamilton, who was pipped to the quickest time in first practice by Vettel, set the early benchmark with a 1m39.720s, with Ricciardo just 0.040s off in second.

The Briton continued with that run and improved again, with a 1m38.912s, to move him 0.848s clear of Ricciardo as the sun set at Yas Marina.

Valtteri Bottas was the first driver to complete a qualifying simulation, clocking a 1m38.609s to go quickest in his Mercedes.

The Finn was usurped by Vettel before Hamilton became the first and only man to dip into the 1m37s.

With just over 40 minutes to go, attention turned to long-run data gathering, with Bottas and Hamilton focusing on the ultrasofts.

Hamilton then joined Vettel on running the supersofts for the final part of the 90-minute session, which provided conditions that would be similar to those in the race.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was fourth quickest, 0.475s off the pace, with Bottas two tenths further back in fifth.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was a second off the pace in seventh and 0.7s slower than teammate Ricciardo.

The Force India duo of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, who were separated by just 0.010s, were eighth and ninth respectively.

Renault's Nico Hulkenberg and McLaren's Fernando Alonso completed the top 10.

Felipe Massa, contesting his last grand prix weekend, was the leading Williams in 11th, seven tenths ahead of teammate Lance Stroll.

Romain Grosjean spent most of the session in the garage as his Haas team worked on fixing an electrical problem, and completed just 12 laps.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	39	1'37.877
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	37	1'38.026	0.149
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	34	1'38.180	0.303
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	35	1'38.352	0.475
5	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	33	1'38.537	0.660
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	34	1'38.894	1.017
7	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	33	1'39.323	1.446
8	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	36	1'39.333	1.456
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	41	1'39.529	1.652
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	28	1'39.559	1.682
11	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	36	1'39.635	1.758
12	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Honda	31	1'39.671	1.794
13	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	Renault	38	1'40.201	2.324
14	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	30	1'40.329	2.452
15	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	Renault	39	1'40.694	2.817
16	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	31	1'41.128	3.251
17	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	Ferrari	43	1'41.270	3.393
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	40	1'41.302	3.425
19	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	Renault	39	1'41.496	3.619
20	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	12	1'41.560	3.683