Don't Miss

India's CWG 2026 Medal Tally Lowest In 24 Years, Yet Among The Best

Tactical Self-Destruction: How England Threw Away Their World Cup Final Dream

Bundesliga Blueprint: How Zee Plans To Complete India's Football Jigsaw

Manuel Neuer Doesn't Know Where To Stop: Not On The Pitch, Not In His Career

Advertisement

ENG

Login

Dark / Light mode

Oct 10,2026 01:40 AM IST

Sebastian Vettel quickest in second practice of Abu Dhabi GP

facebook

twitter

WhatsApp

Settings

Select Language

Dark / Light mode

Search

Formula 1

arrow-down reddit snapchat twitter facebook comments email printer search bell top-nav reddit-fill snapchat-fill twitter-fill facebook-fill share whatsapp-fill bookmark arrow-rgt arrow-next arrow-up refresh close link cog star book zap cricket football tennis formula-1 badminton hockey golf boxing ndtv-n check left-arrow right-arrow

Live Cricket Matches

India Matches

IPL 2026

Football Matches

ISL

EPL

All Matches

India Matches

EPL

Sports Home Formula 1 News Sebastian Vettel quickest in second practice of Abu Dhabi GP

Related Articles

Story ProgressBack to home

Sebastian Vettel quickest in second practice of Abu Dhabi GP

The Red Bull driver overtakes the two McLaren's to post the fastest time.

Read Time: 3 min

Abu Dhabi:

Sebastian Vettel on Friday moved a step closer to becoming the youngest triple world champion in Formula One history by topping the second practice times for Red Bull ahead of Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Racecentre

The defending world champion and current series leader clocked a best time of 1min 41.751secs to head the time-sheets above nearest rivals Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button of McLaren.

Vettel's Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber took fourth.

Hamilton had been fastest in the earlier session in scorching hot conditions at the Yas Marina circuit but was unable to match the 25-year-old German's improved effort in the twilight session that began in daylight and ended under floodlights.

Hamilton's best lap left him one-tenth of a second short of Vettel's fastest lap, the champion revelling in throwing his car around the track on which he could on Sunday help clinch a third successive constructors' title for Red Bull.

Vettel was pleased but cautious after his strong showing which left him well clear of title rival Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.

"We need to work on the car overnight but the pace was not bad," he said. "It was quite slippery today with all the drivers. We saw that many cars were off track here as they are trying to explore the limits."

"That is what we usually do on a Friday, we are more or less there, but we need to make sure we get the car forward. I think we can be happy with today."

"Overall we got a good lap on the soft tyres but in general pace the McLaren's were quick and seem competitive, so they're the ones we need to look out for and beat."

"We need to improve the car overnight to qualify as high as we can tomorrow. Today the battle was with Lewis and he was very quick on the medium tyre so we need to do a little bit of catching up to make sure we are very close to them and possibly ahead of them tomorrow." ( Also read: Has the lead but Vettel knows he still is vulnerable)

Button was 0.66sec down in third ahead of a group of drivers who were little more than seven-tenths of a second slower than the dominant German.

These were led by fifth-placed Romain Grosjean of Lotus ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, Alonso of Ferrari, who is second in the title race and 13 points behind Vettel with three races to go.

Team-mate Felipe Massa was eighth, Pastor Maldonado of Williams ninth and Mexican Sergio Perez 10th for Sauber in a session rin with the track temperature of 41C at the start.

Webber, whose efforts in support of Vettel could clinch the constructors championship for Red Bull, managed only 21 laps in the second session because of a fluid leak on his car.

He said: "It looks like a water generator or some KERS (Kinetic Energy Regeration System) issue, it was a pain.

"We have tonight to fix it and come back tomorrow. We will look through stuff tonight. I have no idea what happened on long runs but tyres don't look too bad."

Red Bull team chief Christian Horner was left not knowing if he should laugh or cry as his team toiled in the torrid weather.

He was proud of the perfection that saw Vettel fastest but, like Webber, frustrated at his car's frailty.

"I think it would have been difficult to envisage that we would be coming to Abu Dhabi 13 points ahead of Fernando after the summer break, when Sebastian was trailing by about 40 points," he said.

"So the fact that we have worked hard to get ourselves into this position is great.

"It is now the best of three effectively, and we have to make sure that we don't look back after three races and say that we didn't give it our very best. That is what we will be aiming to do."

After four straight wins from Vettel and his RB8 Red Bull car, they are hot faovurites.

But Horner warned, there is no room for relaxation.

He said: "There is no room for complacency within the team and there is not one individual who will be thinking in that manner."

Featured Video Of The Day

Neeraj Chopra Wins Silver, Yashvir Singh Bronze As India Seal Double Podium In CWG Javelin

Topics mentioned in this article

Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Mark Webber Jenson Button Lewis Hamilton Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Get the Latest Cricket, Asian Games 2026, Football , Hockey, Badminton Scores, F1 Results at NDTV Sports. Like Us On Facebook Or Follow Us On Twitter For More Sports Updates. You Can Also Download The NDTV Cricket App For Android Or iOS.

Advertisement

Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com

Advertisement

Asian Games 2026 Medals Tally

No. Country G S B Total 1

People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China 169 89 83 341 2

Japan

Japan 83 95 91 269 3

Republic of Korea

Republic of Korea 39 43 68 150 4

India

India 21 27 37 85 5

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan 21 25 24 70

Full Medals Table

Advertisement

Now Trending

Advertisement

Trending Links

Follow us on:

facebook

twitter

Cricket

Football

More Sports

Formula 1 Tennis Hockey Badminton Golf Nba Kabaddi Shooting Swimming Table Tennis

This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics © Copyright NDTV Convergence Limited 2026. All rights reserved.