Vettel and Webber ahead again in FP2

F1 Grand Prix, GP Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuit

Red Bull Racing have taken charge again as both its cars were faster than anyone else in second practice. The were the best on the soft as well as on the medium tyres.

Second practice features a busy first 20 minutes with everybody trying a few flying laps on the harder of the two tyres. After that, the differences at the top are marginal, with Webber, Vettel, Rosberg, Grosjean and Hamilton all matched to within a few tenths of a second. Ferrari meanwhile is nowhere near the front of the field on the mediums with its drivers being 10thand 11th fastest.

20 minutes into the session, Kimi Raikkonen is the first to switch to the soft tyres, going 1.3 seconds faster than Webber after just two attempts, going about 2 seconds faster than his own best time on the medium tyres. The Finn is using the short wheelbase version of the Lotus E21 following his own request. Romain Grosjean on the other hand retains the longer wheelbase.

At around the halfway mark, Mark Webber returns to the pits, followed by his mechanics taking a number of photographs of the flowviz paint on the brake ducts. On the other side of the Red Bull garage meanwhile the rear wing is changed on Sebastian Vettel's car, the newer one featuring a little less frontal surface to help with straight line speed.

Max Chilton meanwhile returned to the pit without the front left brake duct which he left on track. Force India's Paul Di Resta also had somewhat of a moment as he suffered a front left puncture at the end of the straight. No harm was done however, but once back to the pits it was clear how the inside shoulder of the Pirelli was pretty much ruined. The team also kept Sutil in the pits as a precaution.

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Halfway into the session, Button is ordered to return to the pits with a puncture. Two minutes later Grosjean reports something broke on the brakes as he went wide at the end of the straight. He returns to the pits where the team discover a broken brake disc on the right front.

Vettel is fastest, ahead of Webber, Raikkonen, Rosberg and both McLarens before the drivers start with some longer runs. During this phase, it's obvious Red Bull has great race pace as well. McLaren and Lotus, along with Mercedes are up next while Ferrari appears does not appear to be any stronger on longer runs than on their flying laps, suggesting a very difficult remainder of the weekend for the Italian red cars.