Turns proved to be problematic for a number of drivers as they prepared for the last race of the year.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates—November 29th—It has been a particularly trying week for Valtteri Bottas. He split up with his wife off the grid and, on-the-grid, he crashed into Haas F1’s Romain Grosjean with 18 minutes to go in the second Friday practice session. Bottas ended up winning both practices in preparation for Sunday’s Formula 1 finale, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. But after being penalized for another situation, Bottas will start at the back of the grid.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was second with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc clocked in at third.
Bottas set the fastest time of the evening with a 1:36:256, but with 18:26 left in the second session, the Finn tried to pass the Frenchman. He was a long way out at turn 12, and came from the inside and smashed into the left side of the Haas driver, spinning him around in the process.
After a meeting in the steward’s room, Bottas was issued a reprimand for the incident. Worse yet, he’ll start at the back of the grid because a new power unit was fitted to his car earlier in the week.
On the incident with Grosjean, Bottas said that he ran out of room. “I thought he had seen me going for the overtake on the inside, but by the time I realized that he hadn’t seen me, there was no way for me to escape anymore,” the Finn said.
Another turn–Turn 19–was a nemesis for Sebastian Vettel, Leclerc, and Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi. They all spun out in that section. Vettel and Leclerc struck the wall–the German in the morning session and the Monegasque in the evening one.
After the incident, Vettel concluded that the slow corners are giving the Scuderia lots of trouble. “We are pretty much fighting the same things as in the last couple of races. All these medium- and low-speed type of corners we lack speed compared to the others,” he asserted. “Sector three is where it hurts us.”
Giovinazzi was a little luckier in the evening. The Italian spun but missed the wall completely. Giovinazzi reversed his car quickly and proceeded back to the pits.
Vettel, despite his spin, still was the best of the rest in fourth, while Red Bull had a quiet evening, placing Alex Albon and Max Verstappen fifth and sixth, respectively.
And here’s something to keep in mind for tomorrow and Sunday: both the qualifying sessions and the race will be run during evening hours.
