» Abu Dhabi GP: Hamilton fastest in final practice

Lewis Hamilton has positioned McLaren as a likely candidate to claim pole position, with the Englishman ensuring that the Woking squad has finished quickest at every practice session for this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The circuit’s maiden pole-sitter went quickest on the circuit, ahead of the Red Bull pairing of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, while Jenson Button sandwiched the pair in fourth place.

Unlike both of yesterday’s practice sessions, this one-hour session was generally without incident. However, two drivers suffered problems and lost crucial mileage ahead of qualifying: Jarno Trulli failed to post a time courtesy of a gearbox problem, while Rubens Barrichello suffered an oil leak after changing his engine on Friday.

While Ferrari, Mercedes GP and Force India are cleat top-ten contenders, the midfield saw a close scrap for timesheet honours between the Renault, Sauber and Toro Rosso drivers, while Williams look set to be eliminated in Q1, as Pastor Maldonado’s 17th-fastest effort would indicate.

The final minutes of the session saw the most movement on the timesheets, with Mark Webber briefly claiming top honours before Hamilton clocked the first sub-1m39s lap of the weekend, which he improved next time around.

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2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes MP4-26	1:38.976	17
2.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 0.427	18
3.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 0.451	18
4.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-26	+ 0.453	16
5.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F150° Italia	+ 0.685	16
6.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP W02	+ 1.159	19
7.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari F150° Italia	+ 1.207	18
8.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes VJM04	+ 1.453	21
9.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM04	+ 1.535	19
10.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP W02	+ 1.962	18
11.	Bruno Senna	Renault R31	+ 2.533	21
12.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 2.551	21
13.	Sergio Pérez	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 2.590	20
14.	Vitaly Petrov	Renault R31	+ 2.618	18
15.	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 2.646	18
16.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 2.879	18
17.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 3.079	19
18.	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Renault T128	+ 4.433	22
19.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 4.885	5
20.	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02	+ 6.286	23
21.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT F1 Cosworth F111	+ 6.326	20
22.	Jérôme d’Ambrosio	Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02	+ 6.533	22
23.	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT F1 Cosworth F111	+ 6.756	20
24.	Jarno Trulli	Lotus Renault T128	no time	1