Leclerc sets pace in heavily interrupted Abu Dhabi FP2

Charles Leclerc set the quickest time in a heavily interrupted second practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver's best effort of a 1:24.809s was set in the final quarter of the session, following two lengthy red flags.

Lando Norris was second quickest and just 0.043s off on the Soft tyre, with Max Verstappen 0.173s slower in third.

Verstappen was eager to get out following the stoppages, jumping the queue as all the cars lined up once the session restarted with just over 10 minutes left.

George Russell set a lap time in the dying moments of the session which put him sixth quickest behind Sergio Pérez in fifth.

Red flags cause lengthy stoppages

Most of the running was interrupted by two red flags caused by Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg.

The Ferrari driver was the cause of the first stoppage when he crashed 10 minutes into the session at Turn 3.

Sainz was behind one of the AlphaTauri's when starting a lap time and hit a bump midway through the corner, which caused his car to spear off into the TecPro barriers at high speed.

He emerged from the car without any injuries, but the car was damaged significantly for the second time in a row in a practice session.

The stoppage was lengthy as marshals had to repair the barriers, with the session restarting with 25 minutes left.

Moments after drivers took to the track, Hulkenberg caused a second red flag when he crashed exiting Turn 1.

This took less time to recover his car, but it was another interrupting in the run plans for the teams during the race representative conditions.