The second and final Free Practice session of the 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi weekend saw a couple of interruptions, including a red flag to allow marshals to recover some debris that was on track at Turn 12.
After his teammate James Allen set the fastest lap in FP1, Tristan Vautier improved the best time of the day by four tenths of a second, setting a 1m40.800 lap at the Yas Marina Circuit in the no30 RD Limited Oreca-Gibson. The lap was 0.449s ahead of the nearest rival, the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Malthe Jakobsen.
The no24 Nielsen Racing of Nicky Catsburg finished third fastest, 0.12s slower than the no25 Oreca with a 1m41.369 lap, just ahead of Mathias Beche in the no11 Proton Competition Oreca with a best time of 1m41.557.
The no26 Bretton Racing Ligier set the best LMP3 time in FP2, and also for the day, with Griffin Peebles setting a 1m48.446 lap, nearly 1.2 seconds ahead of the second fastest car in the class, the no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Ian Aguilera. The no35 Ultimate was third fastest, 0.025s behind the no15 Ligier and 0.5 seconds ahead of the no7 Graff Racing Ligier.
Car Collection Motorsport topped the GT times for the second time today but in this session, it was the no12 Porsche of Nico Menzel that went quickest, the German posting a 1m53.318 lap late into the session, but still slower than the best FP1 time set by his teammate in the no21 911 GT3 R.
Second fastest in GT was the no23 Absolute Racing Ferrari 296 of Chris Van Der Drift, the 1m53.363 lap just 0.045s slower than the no12 Porsche’s best time.
The no77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren was third quickest, just 0.001 slower than the Ferrari and 0.058s ahead of the no89 EMB Aston Martin Vantage, making it four different manufacturers in the top four covered by just 0.094s.
Qualifying for the 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi will take place tomorrow morning, beginning with GT qualifying at 10h50 followed by the two LMP classes at 11h15. Qualifying will be shown live on the ALMS YouTube channel.
CLICK HERE for the result from FP2 at the Yas Marina Circuit.
