Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Practice 2 Formula 1

Hello and welcome to Abu Dhabi. Free practice two is getting underway. In

practice one this morning, Lewis Hamilton what the second faster than

Nico Rosberg and in third, Kimi Raikkonen was the fastest of the

Ferrari drivers. If you look around, this is the most representative of

the sessions. You can see the sun is starting to set. Temperatures are

starting to drop. This is a twilight race and this time tomorrow,

qualifying will be happening. This is the session whether drivers need

to get things right. In the pit lane, we have Jennie Gow and Tom

Clarkson and in commentary, James Allen and Alan McManus.

COMMENTATOR: Before you joined us, Sebastian Vettel was singing in

Italian, happy birthday to you. We didn't hear who he was singing too,

but presumably somebody from the Ferrari team. Alan, that sums up the

sense of family, the sense of leadership from Vettel this year. He

has really settled straight into Ferrari. He understands the history

and what the places about and he has been on the front foot for most of

the year, with 13 podiums. Yes, he has. He is probably the

the year, with 13 podiums. Yes, he take him longer to get his feet

when he went to Ferrari, seemed to be the ideal man to take them back

to the top. Vettel is coming from the back of a difficult campaign at

Red Bull, when he may be lost bit of confidence and needed a new

challenge. This has reinvigorated him and definitely has put a lot of

energy back into Ferrari. There so many management changes as well over

the last 24 months, but now they seem to be settled. They seem to

have a longer view point. Keeping Kimi Raikkonen was part of that.

Though the team is smiling right now. Next year, they have to

deliver. This is an unusual session. It is one

deliver. This is an unusual from twilight into darkness. The

artificial lights are coming up. The sparks that kicked up from

artificial lights are coming up. The cars become more evident. We can

read the displays on the cockpit is more clearly. A bit of an overseer

for Sebastian Vettel. The rear tyre still struggling. The track

temperature is 29 degrees at the moment and the air temperature is

26. What makes this session unique is that over the next 90 minutes, we

will see the temperatures dropping and therefore, the tyres perform in

a different way. These are the conditions in which the Grand Prix

happens on Sunday. And in qualifying on Saturday as well. In the pit lane

for us is Tom Clarkson. I am standing in front of Felipe Massa's

car, which has been put back together. The team were testing a

lot of parts this morning. They said they are now reverting to be 2015

Spec. He will be out in the next five minutes. Singh Sebastian Vettel

reminded me of a concession I had with tech boss James Alison

yesterday. He said as well as being blindingly quick, Sebastian is one

of only two drivers James has ever worked with whom puts the emphasis

on team. The other is Michael Schumacher. Both of them are

obviously from the same country. I was speaking to someone who does a

lot of preparation for many of the was speaking to someone who does a

drivers in the pit lane, and that is not just the physical, but also the

mental preparation. He was saying of the drivers he has worked with that

Sebastian Vettel has a ferocious attitude towards a work ethic, of

making sure there was not a stone unturned in trying to win. Formula 1

championships do not come on their own. They come with talent and a lot

of effort off the track as well. It will be interesting to see whether a

fifth one will come. I thought that was the Third World championship

coming for Fernando Alonso, but there was a small detail missing.

Whether Vettel is that the tail or has the ability to find it, we will

see. It is also about the competition. What a blog Alonso from

getting that Red Bull -- what blocked Alonso from getting

getting that Red Bull -- what Bull title was that it was

getting that Red Bull -- what formidable package that Ferrari

could not get it. That is the problem. Red Bull were

just too strong. So now, Vettel has switched across to Ferrari, were at

the moment, Mercedes are too strong. But Vettel has managed. Can

Ferrari raise themselves to the same level as Mercedes in terms of the

power and efficiency of these turbo engines? They are giving away about

half a second on a single qualifying lap. If Mercedes can find that extra

bit, they are definitely giving something away at the moment. That

is the task for James Alison and his crew. We have an hour and 23 minutes

remaining in this session. The light is dipping gently as we head towards

darkness. Raikkonen from Perez from Hulkenberg.

Rosberg has just headed out. So has the Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat. You

can get in touch with us throughout this session. If you are watching

the rerun, obviously don't bother. But if you are watching live, please

send in your messages or questions. I was out on track this morning at

the second last corner, and Jenson Button was even working on the

wheel. That is Jenson's mother on the right-hand side of that shot. He

was really having to fight it. The car looks as though it can be

reasonably quick, but it doesn't look easy to drive. That is OK for

qualifying, but for the long runs later in the session, the rear tyre

will get degraded quickly and you have to protect it, especially when

getting towards turn seven, which leads on to the long back straight.

If you lose traction out of whack Verstappen just came out, you have

to carry that penalty all the way down towards the next corner. You

can already see how long that is, reaching 210 mph. We expect him to

be up there when they get into olivine. A quick update on how it

went this morning in free practice won in much warmer conditions.

Raikkonen was third. He is going well here. The infamous, leave me

alone, I know what I'm doing, Grand Prix, that was the message she

gave. We are in the early stages of this free practice two session in

Abu Dhabi. Kvyat was fourth. Daniel Ricciardo are having taken that

development Renault engine last time out in Brazil, found it not to be

satisfying and has switched back again. There is plenty going on

behind the scenes as we still wait for clarification between Renault

and Red Bull and Formula 1 and Lotus as to whether Renault will come

back. It seems as though a deal has been done for Red Bull to have an

engine for next year. That was confirmed this morning, without

saying what it was. With this night race, you can see so much of the

extra information. That 61 on the steering wheel is the balance

distribution. He was moving up beginners as well. Through the

course of coverage today and tomorrow night, keep an eye on that.

You will see how much, and you will see more with Rosberg, they are

changing parameters on their car, corner to corner for the

optimisation. Here is Hamilton's radio. I pulled the clutch. It is

making a not very nice noise. We will check it out. When Lewis

Hamilton says he has pulled the clutch, it is obviously a hand

clutch, but he has pulled it, and I presume when he has released the

clutch again, it is creating quite a hard knock. We will check on the

data, that it is not doing anything untoward. This is Formula 1 on the

BBC, the closing round of this 2015 Formula 1 World Championship in Abu

Dhabi. Lewis Hamilton, the reigning world champion, who has won

back-to-back titles, the first British driver in history to do

that. What are the odds on him doing well in the Sports Personality of

the Year rewards later in the year? A massive amount of oversteer as he

comes through turn 18, under one of the iconic buildings around here.

comes through turn 18, under one of the silver bodywork of that car

through the double right-hander that leads back onto the pit straight for

Lewis Hamilton. He goes Forth could just behind Rosberg Tom Wright and

and Ricciardo. -- behind Rosberg, Raikkonen and Ricciardo.

Hamilton has noted that that last sector of the track is one that he

does enjoy tremendously. But this morning, he did not seem comfortable

with the balance of the car. There were a few things, the seat position

was not ideal. There were also making changes to the front

suspension interns of the third element which is connected -- which

connects the wheels together. element which is connected -- which

just fine tuning it. But this morning's session, to be honest, is

less of an influence in terms of performance than this session,

because this is much more like it is for the race itself. Yes, this is

much more race relevant. We have been asking on the BBC who your

stars of the season are. This fella is definitely one of my stars of the

season, Max Verstappen, mainly because of his amazing overtakes.

Also because of his lightning fast hand but I saw literally a few

metres away from him as he went through the swimming pool complex

Monaco. And also the fact that the challenge faced this season was

completely unique. No one has ever come into Formula 1 as a 70-year-old

and tried to keep their head above water, and he has more than done

that -- as water, and he has more than done

who your favourites are if you are watching this life. Rosberg, fastest

of anybody in sectors one and two. Verstappen just went 10th quickest.

We are waiting for Rosberg to complete his lap. Meanwhile, Daniel

Ricciardo is out in the Red Bull, ending this season with a slightly

subdued atmosphere in the team. Rosberg does improve on 1:42 .899.

This Red Bull chassis ends the season probably as good a chassis as

there is out there at the moment, certainly a match for the Mercedes.

That is a painful reminder for the whole team of the deficiencies in

the engine department. Yeah, but you can't just say that it is the

chassis and not the engine. It is a complete car. Sometimes, you have to

take compromises on the engine to allow the chassis to be developed in

the way it has. Renault had done that in the past. I am not saying

the Renault is anything like a match for the Mercedes engine. But

ultimately, you have to take the whole car as a complete unit. Right

now, there has been a big development in the aerodynamics of

the Red Bull. development in the aerodynamics of

significantly. I would say it is close to Mercedes. But for me, the

Mercedes still has the adaptability and the right quality on curves and

things that maybe the Red Bull doesn't have. But on a circuit like

this, I would expect it to be very good in the corners. Lewis

this, I would expect it to be very has been very good in the corners.

Yes, just coming through to complete this lap, Lewis Hamilton, who would

have won here more if he hadn't woken down in 2012. He won this race

last year on the white clinching the second world title. He goes fastest.

One factor to remember when you talk about Lewis Hamilton against Nico

Rosberg this weekend... Kvyat. I ran the circuit last night,

you will be amazed how much camber is on the finish straight, it dips

towards the inside, similar to Brazil, from right to left. You will

see a lot of break lock-ups, especially at the start of

qualifying, because they have to treat the tyres gently. When you are

thinking about Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, you have to factor

in that Nico Rosberg had an engine failure in

in that Nico Rosberg had an engine has carried forward is the one that

he had in Singapore, whereas Hamilton's is from Sochi. The

Hamilton engine has done at least 800 kilometres or more fewer

Hamilton engine has done at least Nico Rosberg's. That will not affect

it in qualifying, but it might in racing. RADIO: There is an engine

mode difference. There you go. They are running it in a certain way

because everything is minutely planned by the head of the Mercedes

engine division. But that is possibly a factor in terms of how

hard they can run the engines during the Grand Prix. Rewind a bit, we saw

that Felipe Massa was tearing his hair Ross off his visor, he was not

happy with the changing light and the reflections. He had about four

or five of them on, they can distort slightly,

or five of them on, they can distort where you have some coming down into

your eyes. They question on Twitter, if you could have any of the current

drivers as a team-mate, who would you want and why? Nico Hulkenberg

has one Lamont, so I think he has a good feel towards it -- Le Mans. At

Nick Tandy was the leading light at Le Mans through the night. Certain

drivers would adapt, like Jenson Button, with his style, and also the

ability he has to get the best out of a car, when he has

ability he has to get the best out for it, he would do very well.

Fernando Alonso, because a car changes so much over a long distance

race, he would be able to get the speed out of it. I'm not so sure

that he would like sharing his car two other drivers! There are some

good guys looking at it now. Mark Webber, having won the World

Championship at the weekend, he has put another spotlight on with Nico

Hulkenberg coming across and winning the 24 hours in June. The world

sports car champion Mark Webber will be on the BBC TV show before

qualifying tomorrow, so check him out, his autobiography is out, it

has some free and frank revelations about life at Red Bull and his

relationship with colleagues there. Other books

relationship with colleagues there. Christmas! A very significant margin

between the Mercedes and the Red Bull in third place, 1.35 seconds,

from Hamilton to Daniel Ricardo. The beautiful pink red hue of the

light of the sunset in the West. The artificial lights coming up more and

more and the turquoise accent colours around the outside of the

track become that bit less lurid as the light drops. It is quite a

spectacle, this circuit, even without a car running round it, but

when you put 20 cars on it, even though it is not the most thrilling

layout, it is a visual feast. Those strips coming off Felipe Massa's

Pfizer, he is leaving them to litter the racetrack. They are dark, it is

smoked. You can see his eyes very clearly. If we could not see them

before, he could not see out. It was a bit too dark for him in this

changing light. Nico Rosberg still has it. He did not completely detach

it, Felipe Massa, the right-hand trailing edge was still attached to

the helmet. Forces of the wind, he would have managed to detach it.

Down there, Felipe Massa get additional cooling into the top of

his crash helmet -- Felipe Nasr. There are vents through the helmet

allowing airflow. When you are sitting in the pits, you start to

feel the temperature increase, and cooling the head is important. It is

not that hot in reality, but it is quite stifling when you have got an

engine behind you, a hybrid system which produces a tremendous amount

of heat energy, and when you are sitting in the pits, it gets it in

and around you. Tom? Looking at the front of Lewis Hamilton's car, he is

not happy with the braking on his car, it is worth reminding everybody

that this is a very heavy braking circuit, 13 braking events around

the track. That is Nico Rosberg laying some rubber. Lewis Hamilton

is not happy with the braking. Taking a quick look, no changes as

yet, there is a lot of head scratching. The problem is twofold,

in the big straight, everything cools down, front tyres and the

brakes, and then you have a big stop into the chicane, 210 miles an hour

in qualifying, down to 60 miles an hour into the left-hander. Then you

have the big long run where everything cools down. In the third

part of the circuit, the very quick acceleration and break and

acceleration and break, and it is difficult to find the balance. When

you take into account the hybrid systems are recuperating energy,

that changes the balance. It is tough to get the perfect raking feel

and consistency. 3.47 miles, this circuit, 21 corners. 13 different

braking events. There are six corners below 100 mph, only Monaco

and Singapore have more. Felipe Massa goes off circuit. It is quite

low grip, and not a lot of track grip, so not a lot of margin for

error. When you have high grip, you can break a bit late, come off and

release and still make the corner. With low track grip and high tyre

pressures, from a safety point of view, it makes it a bit difficult,

but I can imagine that Lewis Hamilton will be trying to get the

optimum tonight, because this is a longer run, that is where you need

the balance between the ability to stop temperature and the locking.

All the times have been set on the soft compound Pirelli tyre, but Kimi

Raikkonen in the Ferrari becomes the first to go out on the super soft

tyre. This is the phase of the 90 minute session where we see the

qualifying simulation, low fuel and a new set of super-soft tyres, and

see what the outcry performance looks like. It is a site for

qualifying. Then they go and refuel and do long runs to get the sense of

how the and do long runs to get the sense of

Prix will be. The fastest lap time here last year in this free practice

session was Mercedes, 1:42 .113. Hamilton is just 0.4 away from that

on a set of soft tyres. Kimi Raikkonen has two corners, he is on

a 43.994. That is the first time we will see the delta between the soft

tyres and these. It is slow fair. Alternately, the peak of the tyre

will come right out. If he was too fast on the

will come right out. If he was too the peak of the tyre. Romain

Grosjean heads into the pit lane, Jenny? Yes, I just wanted to give

you an update on their front wing, it is new. Why bring a new one to

this race? I wanted to give you a guided tour so you can see the

differences. This is the new one, the old one is underneath it. See if

you can spot the difference. On the new one, it is like a pelican neck,

the bulge, and underneath, it is very flat and straight. That is the

difference. If we come round the front, you can see the difference in

the nose. This has a bulging front, and underneath it is a simple

rounded front. There are other differences to the wings. If I walk

across, right at the back of the garage, this is Romain Grosjean 's

Mike garage, and this is his last race for Lotus, he has been there

for a long time, the use to have long hair, they have put his start

their in an ode to him. His 83rd and final race for the team which is

currently called Lotus, but he has been at that team throughout his

Formula 1 career so far. Lotus are still trying to develop the

Formula 1 career so far. Lotus are they have not been able to throw

much cash at it, but as it has been in short supply, as they wait to get

confirmation that Renault will take over the team at some point. We were

expecting it to be announced this weekend, but the boss of Renault has

yet to firm it up. The front wing, everybody is 20 get as

yet to firm it up. The front wing, to go underneath the nose of the

car. That is where most of the downforce is created. You will see

more and more of that now in terms of people looking for the higher

cockpits and coming down at a more steep rectangle, to get more airflow

cockpits and coming down at a more underneath that section of the car.

That is the holy Grail. underneath that section of the car.

trying to speed up the airflow underneath that section of the car.

as opposed to from the wings. It is a much more efficient way of doing

it. This is now an efficiency for Miller in general. Kimi

was quite efficient, he was 1.1 seconds faster on the super-soft

tyre. We see adult of about one second, which was generally

predicted, but not enough to put him up into a fighting position with the

Mercedes cars. That'll be an interesting benchmark, if Hamilton

could take that off his best time, it would mean he would be seven or

eight tenths quicker than the fastest first practice to time from

2014. Giving an indication of progress. It will only be in

qualifying where we get a sense of how far these cars have come. Jenson

Button is how far these cars have come. Jenson

McLaren. He is currently running on a set of soft tyres, the yellow

sidewall. He had some warm words about his comment he made Fernando

Alonso, he said he was more consistent and more of a challenge

to deal with as a team-mate in terms consistent and more of a challenge

Lewis Hamilton. Jenson Button scored more points than Lewis Hamilton at

McLaren, but Hamilton had more victories, but reliability was a

factor in that story, Hamilton losing a number of victories in

2012. If you are a driver, you talk up your comment team-mate.

Certainly. Lewis Hamilton has grown stronger over that period of time.

The Lewis Hamilton of now and they few years ago, even of last year,

very different. They are certainly more consistent at a high level,

that has been the story of Hamilton in 2015. We look forward to seeing

what he can do next year. A renewed challenge from Nico Rosberg in the

closing stages of this championship. Sebastian Vettel has moved across

onto the super-soft tyre. What a fantastic qualifier he has been

throughout 2015 in the Ferrari. It has been an Achilles heel for

Ferrari for many years. His pole position in Singapore, the first for

them in three years, they are working hard. He is sticking with

the tinted Pfizer, unlike some drivers. There are plenty of sparks

coming from underneath the car. As a guest haka, the circuit is

eliminated by the lights around the track. -- as it gets darker.

Recommended not need to lift off -- Raikkonen did not have a big time

penalty. This is an important point. In the race James, this is a good

overtaking point. But we have seen most of it around the outside. So,

his team-mate Reichmann managed to find 1.1 seconds in the switch from

soft to super-soft. Generally speaking, Vettel has had three or

four chance of a in his pocket over Raikonnen throughout this season.

Kimi Raikkonen described his performance as average for the year.

Plenty to think of other adjectives for as well. We are confused as to

why Ferrari returned him for another year. Who is Ericsson's radio.

Loving it so much. Copy that, Marcus. Vettel goes across the line.

So even on the super-soft tyres, Vettel in the Ferrari cannot match

the Mercedes on the soft tyre of Lewis Hamilton. He has just gone to

tenths of a second slower. Quite a significant difference between the

amount of time that Raikkonen found compared to Vettel. But I don't

think that lap of Vettel on the soft tyre was as fast as those. Daniel

Ricciardo got through on the second. In general, you would expect that

Ferrari will be more competitive again tomorrow. Remember, they

stopped showboating in free practice two, quite a few Grand Prix 's ago.

Right now, they are not two, quite a few Grand Prix 's ago.

position to attack the two Mercedes cars as we had hoped. The young

Russian driver had a good season, Kvyat. He goes into the hairpin.

Alan was indicating that this lap will not be a good one. With that

corner, you don't have to go to the apex. You can try and keep more

momentum. A little lock-up as you turn in isn't a big problem. But

when you do go that wide, you lose the ability to go on to the total as

early and then you carry that problem all the way down the

straight. So he did lose a bit of time. Kvyat was not maximising

anything in the early part of the season, but since Monaco, he has

been terrific. Jenson Button that, feeding back that there is less

overall grip. How many times have we heard a message from him this season

complaining about lack of grip? Kvyat, meanwhile, continues on his

merry way, passing underneath the hotel. He has had a terrific season

from Monaco on words and is currently ten points clear of his

highly esteemed Australian team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who certainly

outshone Vettel last year when they were together at Red Bull. If he

stays in front of Ricciardo at the end of the season, although there

have been a heck of a lot of reliability issues with that team

for various drivers, it is not a straight comparison. Nevertheless, a

good reason for Daniil Kvyat. Sixth fastest overall.

Hamilton has gone on to the super-soft tyres. He is out there at

the moment, building up to a lap, as junior goes through. -- Carlos Sainz

Jr. Max Verstappen is his team-mate. The position of the championship

slightly skews the picture. But if he has a clean run through Friday,

Saturday and Sunday, he will be able to deliver. Jenson Button, as we

were saying, they have a tough time ahead. He how the tough time all

year. By far McLaren's worst season in its Formula 1 history. Someone

asked, where do you think McLaren will stack up? It is a tough one. In

terms of pure performance, we have to wait and see. Rick Astley, pop

star from the 1980s, is here. He has been to a few Grand Prix overtime. A

member of the cast of Game Of Thrones is also there. Here's an old

friend of Eddie Jordan. Rosberg, personal best in sectors

one and two, but not the fastest of everybody. Meanwhile, Hamilton has

done the fastest middle sector of anybody so far more watched by Niki

Lauda and Toto wharf. Hamilton crosses the line and go

second-fastest only. Nevertheless, Rosberg is quicker than Hamilton

after the qualifying similar issues. That is interesting. Coming back to

Toto Wolff being tired after the season they have had, he has got to

be happy if he is tired given this season they have had.

What we have seen before this morning was them doing one fast lap

on the soft tyre, and then able to go again to improve. I am not sure

whether that will be possible on the super-soft tyres. Hamilton's lap

will be a disappointment to him. We did not really see it, so it is hard

to know where it went wrong. He is certainly giving a better way to

Rosberg Insecta one, which is the breaking -- in sector one, which is

the braking. It is in the braking into the first corner. If you run a

bit wide, the tag line is quite narrow. So you tend to get on to the

slippery part of the track with your right hand wheels and ran wide.

Pastor Maldonado is up there in seventh place at the moment. That is

a good effort when you consider that the Lotus mechanics only started

unpacking the freight and building the cars and garages yesterday

afternoon, when we got here. It was a fast and furious effort from

them. They have had issues with payments of freight etc. Talking of

the stars of 2015, we always talk about drivers, but I would put the

mechanics of Lotus right up at the top, and their engineers. Not only

have they put up with all that, but they have also managed to get a

podium for Grosjean and get him qualifying regularly in the top ten.

The car has had almost no development on it,

The car has had almost no of getting the most out of what

The car has had almost no frugality and making the most of

what you have, the stars of the year are definitely the Lotus mechanics

and engineers. Tom? I am with the Ferrari team. What are they saying?

It seems reasonable. We could be in a better position, but it is a good

starting point. Right now, it is the most important for Daley preparation

for the weekend, because it is the most representative session before

qualifying. So the team are working very hard. So far, everything is

going well. What are very hard. So far, everything is

conditions like? It is getting dark and the temperatures are coming

down. Yeah, it is unusual to have these temperatures in Abu Dhabi.

Usually, it is warmer. There is usually fizzes on how the tyres are

up. It will be crucial for the olivine lap. We have just been

discussing where we think the Haas team can come in last year. What are

you expecting? That is a good question -- next year. Obviously, it

is a tricky one. It is a new team. Initially, we have to make sure we

are well integrated as a team in order to have a very efficient

development as a team. If we have a reasonable car, which we expect to

have, I think we can do something very good. It is too early to say. I

have had some input into the development of the car. It is a very

interesting project. The car looks nice and sharp. Everything is going

well. I was at Homestead last weekend, watching the final Nascar

race with your future boss. I must say, he runs a very good as

race with your future boss. I must of it. Yes, he does. He has an

amazing infrastructure as well as a great mentality. That is his

background. In every business he has been in, he has been successful. So

I am sure this relationship been in, he has been successful. So

work. Finally, have you negotiated your salary with him yet? Ha-ha! In

which sense? I ask because one person I interviewed said he was

richer than God, so if you haven't, go a bit higher? Let's see if I get

a bit closer to that! You can see that feature of Tom Clarkson's in

tomorrow's qualifying show on BBC One at 12.10. This is free practice

two for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the BBC. As the light levels begin

to seriously drop and the artificial lights come up, we were just hearing

from Esteban Gutierrez. He is racing for Haas next year alongside Roman

Grosjean. It is interesting to hear. He is a good talker. But he

will have his work cut out against Roman Grosjean, surely one of the

fastest guys in Formula 1. He certainly will. Esteban Gutierrez is

a test driver for RE. There will be a lot of Ferrari influence into the

Haas programme. Good cheer as -- Esteban Gutierrez

has got the seat. He has a lot of backing from Mexico, from Carlos

Slim and his telecoms company. So a lot of support for him. We saw the

support for Sergio Perez in Mexico. I'm sure next year, they will be

more delighted when they see two Mexican drivers out on circuit. Here

is Sergio Perez. He Mexican drivers out on circuit. Here

towards the Yas Hotel. These are called cookie cutter corners through

18, 19 and 20. Sergio Perez got a podium last time he was in the

Middle East region in Bahrain. He is up into third place. Pretty much

everybody has now done a qualifying simulation, with the exception of

Grosjean and Ericsson. I am being picked up on Twitter by James

McDonald, who said is Sirius you passed up the opportunity of seeing

Rick Astley and saying Button is never gone I give up on Honda. Fair

enough! Bebo is to say I looked like him at school, which did not

appreciate. But that is enough of Rick Astley.

I have never been prepared to him, much to my wife's disappointment, I

am sure! Let's talk about the stars of the season. Who have been some of

your styles? If you go from the top to the bottom, Lewis Hamilton,

because of his ability to turn around the weakness of last year,

when he got ruffled in qualifying. Sergio Perez has lifted his game

quite a lot, Gus Nico Hulkenberg was in form at the beginning of the

season, but Sergio has done the job. I have been impressed by both

of the Toro Rosso drivers, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr.

There has been much more to Carlos Sainz Jr than meets the eye, I did a

piece for the BBC website last week, looking into both of their

seasons, because for me Carlos Sainz Jr's opportunity was very late, and

he grabbed it with both hands, and they both have a future. I laughed

at one of the people who wrote in about Jenson Button, because both of

those guys in the face of adversity has not thrown their toys out of the

pram. One person I am interested in and a star of this year and

generally is Romain Grosjean we want to see him in a better funded team.

He can leave them with ten podiums in his CV. He will be aiming to add

plenty more to that in his years to come. He is still pretty young,

plenty of time on his side. Adrian has tweeted, nobody except Max

Verstappen for me. He makes me do silly sounds when he goes passing

others. There have been a few sounds out of my mouth, especially in

Belgium, when he tried to overtake Felipe Nasr round the outside. I

have thought about it in the past and thought, wait and do it into the

chicane. He threw caution to the wind. I thought it would be tight,

but he pulled it off, and he has pulled off everyone apart from the

incident with Romain Grosjean into the first corner. He has done it

without locking brakes or anything else. He has a real feel for that.

The overtake with Sergio Perez was sublime as well. We kicked off with

our Thursday night show on the radio, we played a game with Max

Verstappen and his father, we asked Max some questions about the best

piece of advice he has been given and the worst, and then Jos had to

guess what they were. They both agreed that the outstanding overtake

this season. One around the outside of Felipe Nasr. I would put a shout

in for the one inside Marcus of Felipe Nasr. I would put a shout

Ericsson in China early on in his Formula 1 debut season, he slowed

the car down from well over 200 miles an hour, overtaking him

without locking up. RADIO: miles an hour, overtaking him

second away from Nico Rosberg. It has been a good lap by Fernando

Alonso to get himself up there. Whatever state the car

Alonso to get himself up there. pretty good run so far. It is

difficult to draw too many conclusions from these Friday

sessions, though they tend to read across wheeze to be well. Williams

tend to come up a bit from where they are on Friday to qualifying on

Saturday, and again to the race on a Sunday. But by and large, it is a

reasonable read across, everybody is turning the engine down, as they

have to get through the season with four engines. Hearing Fernando

Alonso, the FIA put out an awful lot of statements, and one of them is

about how many engines everybody has used. Fernando Alonso has already

used 12 internal combustion engines out of his allocation of four,

used 12 internal combustion engines seasons' worth already. I wonder if

the rest of his career will last another three seasons. He said he

the rest of his career will last winning another title is with

McLaren, he does winning another title is with

would have achieved it winning another title is with

harsh. I will not comment on that, I would just say frying pan into the

fire, but we have to give them the benefit of the doubt, the fact that

they are early into this, but they have an uphill climb had of them, as

Nico Rosberg is in the pits. They are being very quick to get the

blowers onto the brakes, much quicker than normal, even when the

cars are standing for a quicker than normal, even when the

of time. As Tom said earlier, quicker than normal, even when the

quite a tough circuit on quicker than normal, even when the

there are 13 braking zones around this 3.47 mile Yas Marina circuit,

and 18% of the lab is spent braking. There are three big stops, into Turn

1, 90 miles an hour, into Turn 8, from 210 down to 50, and that is

five GF braking force that hits the driver square on the chest. It makes

your head want to fly forward. Then another long straight building up to

just over 200 miles an hour, and again breaking down to 50 or 60. Big

stops around this lap. You do not feel the five G very

stops around this lap. You do not more. One of the dignitaries is

listening in. Is that Abdullah? Note. But coming back to the G

force, you do not feel it so much, because you are bracing yourself

against the brake pedal and steering wheel. When it is lateral through

Turn 3 and Turn 4, you feel it on your rib cage and chest. And a bit

on your neck. But you have the big neck support that helps you.

on your neck. But you have the big was Ron Dennis with one of the

Bahraini royal family. Their sovereign wealth fund in the McLaren

team. Ron Dennis has not been seen at a Grand Prix for a few races. He

has been very active, though, in the meetings behind the scenes, the

commission meeting and the strategy group, both of which took place

earlier this week. You were referring to the engine situation,

where the governing body, with Bernie Ecclestone, were talking

about a Class B engine. But it was quite a big gambling chip to bring

everybody to give -- to the table. Maybe work towards simplifying

them, either producing, parts -- common parts, like we have a common

electronic control unit at the moment, to bring some costs down, or

simplifying in certain areas, getting rid of some components. The

conversations carry on this weekend. The manufacturers and the FIA and

the teams have to get a proposal together by the end of January four,

2017, to try and streamline the engine situation, get the cost down

to a more sustainable level for the independent teams. That is all

ongoing in the background. We are into some long runs. You are looking

at Romain Grosjean on his final outing with Lotus. 35 minutes

remaining in the session. This is Romain Grosjean Mac first run on the

super soft tyre, he is quicker than he has been in the first and second

sector, he has had the highest overall speed trap figure into the

second sector, but overall speed trap figure into the

where you gain most out of the softer tyre compound, as you break

into this corner. Then the change of direction. The next two left-handers

are an adverse camber, you need to have a good feeling and lateral grip

before you flick into the final two corners. Romain Grosjean will be

up, we are not quite sure where he will plop himself into. Plenty of

you getting in touch using Twitter to tell us who your stars of the

season. If you are watching on Saturday morning, don't bother.

Chris says, I have to give it to Valtteri Bottas, outperforming his

Finnish counterpart and his team-mate. He has had a decent

season, though he flat lined when Ferrari were looking at potentially

replacing Kimi Raikkonen. He was disappointed at that point. But

since then, he has pulled his socks up. Higgins says, the entire Manor

team, dignity in the face of the loss of Jules Bianchi, who passed

away this season, one of the low points of 2015. Simon, difficult, on

paper it is Lewis Hamilton, but also the Manor team, against the odds.

The Red Bull looks striking in the artificial lights, with the purple

accent colour coming out of the blue and red and yellow of the paintwork.

It has not been the fastest car this season, but it is striking. This is

only his second season in Grand Prix. Last year at Toro Rosso, he

did a good job, then on Friday night, when Sebastian Vettel told

the team that he was leaving, on Saturday morning he went from being

a Toro Rosso driver in 2015 to being a fully fledged Red Bull driver with

Daniel Ricciardo. He has done a very good job. A difficult beginning to

the year, but after that, he has managed to be consistent at

delivery. He is another driver that has got to be up there. Maybe not

for driver of the season, but one that we have to keep a close eye on.

Certainly. In the first few races, he would have thought it would be

nice if he had stayed at Toro Rosso, but since then, it came together.

That is the son of the but since then, it came together.

Ferrari. The Ferrari car company is celebrating its anniversary in 2017,

that would be a good time for them to win another championship, if they

do not do it next year. He recently became a billionaire with the

company floating a small percentage of shares on the stock market,

valuing the company at such a level that his stake, agreed to him by his

father, values him at a billionaire. Nice if you can manage it. There are

no cars with my name! It is not too late! It could be! There is

McLaren! Yes. Moving swiftly on! Fastest through the speed traps,

Pastor Maldonado, not for the first time. It is pretty slippery in a

straight line. 207 miles an hour. These speeds are being elevated. A

crash, one of the Toro Rosso cars, Carlos Sainz Jr. He is off the

track. He is into the wall with the left rear, and we can see smoke. It

looks like he has pulled off, he has not hit anything. It is on the

inside of the hairpin. The headrest comes off, it is another technical

issue. Very frustrating. He has had some rotten luck. Plenty of

breakdowns. A few accidents as well, the big one on Saturday in Sochi.

Absolutely horrendous. It is interesting, talking to him about

how he got back on the horse after that. He was cleared to race by the

doctors the next day, and he said the first couple of times in the

race that he went through that corner, he backed off a tiny bit

will stop here is an explanation. Break the wire off. A huge cut.

RADIO: Engine off, stop the car. OK. Something happened. Again.

He have to stop the car straightaway. This is the data for

tomorrow, it is a blunt. Sorry, for Sunday, and for the race.

It was the word again and that was the telling part of that message.

Something has gone wrong, again. He had an old-fashioned engine blow-up

that locked both rear wheels and his kid to a halt. So it has been a case

of again. And there is the young man, who has certainly made his mark

in 2015, but not in the way that team-mate Verstappen has done.

Reliability and a few accidents have definitely contributed to that. As

we were saying before we got that definitely contributed to that. As

replay. Very interesting hearing how he got back into driving in Sochi.

It was all about building confidence again, having had such an enormous

accident. Alan, you know what it is like to get back on the horse after

accidents. Thank you for bringing that up, James. It is very much a

mental thing. You have to force yourself through it. You have got

this natural sort of defence against putting yourself in dangerous

positions, but ultimately, you have to push yourself do it. To me, that

was one of his best races, because he had a blinding one after that up

into the points, and then a brake issue put him out of the race. Well,

we know this session is about qualifying simulations, but it is

also about long-running performance, as Alan was saying.

Let's check in and have a look at what the long one performance is

looking like so far. This stint so far is Nico Rosberg is six laps old.

He is in the high 1:47s at the moment, almost identical to

team-mate Lewis Hamilton. moment, almost identical to

both using super-soft tyres. Very early days. Rosberg's tyres have

done in 11 in total, so we are looking for signs of degradation

now. The super-soft tyre is designed to thermally degrade, in other

words, for the temperature to affect the performance of the tyre. Sergio

Perez, meanwhile, has switched back on to the soft tyre. He is three

laps in with a set of tyres that have done 13 laps. Ricciardo has a

similar situation to Rosberg, seven laps into a run on a set of tyres

that have done 12 laps. He is only three tenths of a second slower than

the pace that the Mercedes three tenths of a second slower than

on at the moment. Vettel has just gone back out on a set of soft

tyres, so he and Raikkonen are doing a direct comparison at the moment.

Raikkonen is super-soft tyre, but he has only

just gone out on it, so we cannot give you any Ferrari long-running

data at the moment, but that is a picture of where Mercedes, Force

India and Red Bull are. Here is Maldonado's long-running.

India and Red Bull are. Here is see that the pace is a

India and Red Bull are. Here is erratic. For the last couple of

laps, you can see the degradation. The lap time is growing. That is a

numerical representation of that. It is the first part of the circuit

that he is going onto now where you can drive without having to think

about it. But in the final part of the circuit, you have just got to

have a different feel, making sure you don't just floored the throttle

and pick up a bit of wheel spin, because that will also increase your

tyre degradation. When we get to laps eight to ten, that is when we

will get a feel for who is quick. That is when you would say there is

historically a separation on other tracks. You see how competitive the

teams are. We will see whether Ferrari can take any sort of fight

to Mercedes. We will also see where Williams are littered to Ferrari. We

have been asking you who your stars of the season. Ryan has said... BBC

London 94.9 they are the grading now. -- RADIO: it is degrading now.

That was information about how his tyres are performing. Ryan says all

the supporters at Austin are the stars. Amen to that, in the face of

the horrendous weather at the weekend. And that Force India

mechanic who did the dance moves. He was doing the break dancing. Stars

of the year are McLaren Honda mechanics, says Steve. And another

viewer agrees. I bet they can change an engine with their eyes closed

after this season, he says. Well, they have had plenty of practice at

it, no question about that. This is the most improved team, though,

Force India, from where they started at the beginning of the year. They

had that big upgrade. Since then, they have lifted their performance

hugely. This should be a track where they go well, because they tend to

be good on the tyres, especially Perez, more than Nico Hulkenberg. We

know he will have a decent straight-line speed. So, 23 minutes

remaining in the session. The circuit here at Yas Marina is now

brilliantly illuminated with artificial lights. It is dark. We

are on the third island out from the downtown Abu Dhabi area, an area

which is growing so quickly. And its influence internationally has grown

as well. Since the introduction of this race in it is hard to overstate

how important this race is to Abu Dhabi and the way it presents itself

to the world and how important it is as a trading opportunity with the

rest of the world as well, like the Manchester City ownership. Those two

things have happened in the last seven or eight years and have really

put Abu Dhabi on the map, primarily through sport, but behind that,

there is a lot of business going on as Abu Dhabi trades with the rest of

the world. Look at that slow-mo, the amount of vibration. In the car, you

don't feel it, but looking at it, you see it seems to be a huge

amount. But in the you see it seems to be a huge

the speed you are going over, you don't feel it in the slightest. Max

Verstappen pits. He is at the 13th fastest time in the qualifying

simulations, just ahead of his team-mate, who was out of the

running. His car broke down at a hairpin about ten minutes ago.

Verstappen switches over to a set of the super-soft tyres and heads back

out on circuit. Pastor Maldonado braked on that curve, and that was

immediately struggling to make the apex of the corner. 21 minutes

remaining. On circuit, Kimi Raikkonen, still working on the

super-soft tyre. Team-mate Vettel is hammering around on the soft tyre

and has now done two laps in this stint, nine in total. His last lap

was slow, so it is difficult to draw conclusions. Raikkonen is lapping in

the low innit 47s. -- 1:47s. Rosberg is lapping in the low 1:49s.

Raikkonen has been pretty quick. He is faster than Vettel in this

particular long-running. He was quick this morning, Raikkonen. He

has done well here in the past. On the face of it, with every team not

having done the same number of laps, it suggests that Ferrari could be

quite competitive, come race day. We have been in the same situation for

some time. RADIO: right-hand magic to offer,

please. I don't like it, we discussed that. Copy. Magic is a

switch or a wrote on the steering wheel, and it can be whatever you

want it to be from weekend to weekend, depending on which

parameter you want to change. That is not something we have any

understanding of what it is this weekend. But whatever it is, Rosberg

is and want to work on it. Those are the stats for Romain Grosjean. He

used to be very thin when he first started in Formula 1. He didn't have

the strength to drive the cars. He has done a lot of work on his core

stamina and strength. Going back to Ferrari, it has been a while since

the early summer. If they get the car in front of a Mercedes, they can

stay there will stop the problem for them has been getting the car in

front in the first place. They either have to come from a brake

start, or from out-qualifying, as they did in Singapore. I still think

qualifying is the area that Ferrari have to put the most work into. Over

the years, if you think back to all the Fernando Alonso years and the

amount of pole positions in that period, you could count on one

hand, basically. To win the race, you have to be ahead of the

opposition. And to do that, you are better doing it off the line and

controlling the race. If you are trying to do it from behind, you

have to play risky strategies which often do not work out. That is how

they won their third race in Malaysia, which was down to very

aggressive strategy from the team of James Allison. Mercedes were being

cautious with their engine and they were not working well with the

tyres. This is a former GP to champion, interviewing Carlos

Sainz. He did not get his opportunity in Formula 1. He was a

test driver at Lotus for a while. Have a while. Having listened to his

commentary in Italy, he's just a -- just as good a commentator as he was

a driver. Coming back to one thing on Alonso, it has been confirmed

that he had four pole positions at Ferrari in five years, so less than

one a year. Absolutely, it has been a weakness of Ferrari for a long

time. a weakness of Ferrari for a long

RADIO: I lose my brake. A BBW fell for Paris. I have lost the brakes,

he said. This is a tough circuit the brakes -- for Perez. He is coasting

into the pit lane. There are two brake circuits on a Formula 1 car

for safety reasons, so he cannot lose all the brakes. But if you lose

anything at 200 miles an hour, it is a shunt. So often,

anything at 200 miles an hour, it is automatic cutout if you do have a

brake failure. automatic cutout if you do have a

safety item. When you are travelling at 90 metres per second, we can see

Tom Clarkson having a look around the rear left wheel of the Force

India with the temperature problem. Tom? You are on the spot. I am, but

I am not getting much closer, because it is a hot. There were

flames coming out of the rear left wheel and it is still glowing red as

it is pushed back into the garage. They will have to do a bit of work.

As a result, Perez has not been able to do a practice start from his pit

box. Something that is an anomaly at this race track is that the drivers

are not allowed to do practice starts at the exit of the pit lane.

It is a very narrow exit. So we are seeing a lot more practice starts in

the pit boxes. How accurate the information is that they are getting

from that, I don't know, because it is a concrete

from that, I don't know, because it slippery, but that is what the teams

are having to do because they only get the chance to do two practice

starts. We just saw the fire you were talking about, Tom. There are a

lot of carbon fragments on the floor. They do

lot of carbon fragments on the easily. If there is temperature

there, the temperature goes into the calibre, and once it is into the

calibre and the Pistons and the rubber seals behind it, they will

have to change it. RADIO: the front right is starting

to be pretty bad. The grading on the front right. It is a predominantly

left cornered circuit, and Bottas has done 13 laps on this set of

tyres. That is going to be the performance dictator. Meanwhile,

Rosberg has just come into the pits. His last lap was a 1:48 something.

That is quite quick for a set of tyres that had an 80 laps. Hamilton

did 1:46 .724. I have been looking at the numbers, they are going up

and down. They are either having at the numbers, they are going up

call down, which they often do in practice... A beautiful power

call down, which they often do in I Valtteri Bottas. It looked good

for the cameras. They tend to take a couple of laps to try to slow

everything down and then go again, something they do not do in the

race. Sergio Perez having that work done on the brakes. Coming back to

what I said about the calipers, done on the brakes. Coming back to

the brake caliper that holds the pads in gets too hot, they have to

replace it, because once that gets distorted, it is finished. Right

front lock-up. You can see the damage from the graining. A bit like

taking in an eraser and rubbing it across the top of the piece of

paper, the pieces of rubber that come off, that is what the tyre is

doing as it scrubs across the surface of the race track, that is

graining. It is like to turn and you do not have the grip, you

understeer. You run wide a little bit, like Daniil Kvyat did their,

all you have to slow the car down at the apex to keep your line. RADIO:

We think it is half a second slower to start but much lower

We think it is half a second slower He is on the soft tyre. It is a big

difference in qualifying. After that, it is half a second at the

beginning, once they have gone through the heat cycle, and it

reduces down. The key is where the crossover point happens to be. Last

year, most people started on the super-soft tyre and got between ten

and 14 laps in before coming into switch onto the soft tyres. In Lewis

Hamilton's case, lab 31, Felipe Massa extended the middle stint, Lap

43, Lap 45 for Valtteri Bottas. It was the favoured raced higher last

year. I would suspect the most common raced higher this season has

been the soft across the whole championship, it has been brought to

most races, and where it has been the softest option it has been

raised, and where it has been the hardest option. It is the one that

the drivers know the best and the engineers know the best, across a

range of different tracks. Just under 12 minutes remaining. The

Sergio Perez lap time is an indication that Ferrari did not

quite perform. I do not think that will be the case tomorrow in

qualifying. On the other side, it says that Force India will be a

force to be reckoned with. How much longer they will be called that has

been a talking point, rumours going around about a rebranding, new

sponsors coming in, all sorts of things seem to be on the table. But

until they get confirmed by the owner and the deputy team principal,

it is all just speculation. More of you getting in touch with your stars

of the season on Twitter. Jack says, the guy who came up with the places

Fernando Alonso would rather be social media hashtag phenomenon,

which was special, after he was photographed sitting in a marshal's

deckchair after his car let him down, or his engine let him down, in

Brazil, he was photo shop into all kinds of situations, sitting

alongside Forest Gump, into the cockpit of a Ferrari! Chris said,

you have to give it to Valtteri Bottas. We have had that one

already. Thank you for your contributions. We are into the

closing stages of this second practice, Mercedes have class

leading pace when it comes to qualifying. Ferrari have not really

shown up today. They are a bit further away than normal.

It has not been plain sailing in terms of how the tyres are behaving,

as the temperatures come down. The track temperature is 28 degrees, it

did not start out like that at the beginning. There has been some

graining. Not everybody has been able to get the maximum performance

out. He is Hamilton. RADIO: What times and my supposed to be doing

now? 47.0. That is an end of term weariness in his voice. He has won

the World Championships and Constructors' Championship, closing

stages, what am I doing again? The long runs the homework, the due

diligence, it is not the most exciting part for a driver, it is

what you have to to make sure the car is right. The performance runs

are the fun, taking it to the edge. This is not the fastest he can drive

two, so there is an element that you just have to deal with it and do it,

as opposed to it being the one that makes the heart and faster. He is

driving carnauba 44, he is entitled to be the number one plate holder,

but he chooses to carry the number 44 on his car. If he wins the Abu

Dhabi gone pre-, it will be his 44th career Formula 1 victory, so there

is a symmetry at the end of his championship. When he arrived and

was driving around the city and coming out to the track, you will

have seen on the billboards a massive number 44. You may have been

forgiven for thinking that it was in celebration of him, but you know

what it is about. It is the 44th anniversary of the founding of the

United Arab Emirates. This is a special year for them. He is

searching for his 50th pole position, something we expected

quite a few races ago, but Nico Rosberg has pinched it from him

every time. There are two landmarks therefore Lewis Hamilton, if he can

just get his hands onto them, but it is proving more than he expected.

Looking at it from your point of view, what has been the difference

between them in qualifying in the last five or six races? Why have the

pendulum swung? I think a little bit is that Hamilton has won his third

world title, so there is a bit of focus gone to other things. At the

same time, Nico Rosberg has just pulled together a bit more. It is

same time, Nico Rosberg has just the first run, in the last part of

qualifying, whoever is quickest there seems to get it at the end.

Nico Rosberg has delivered in that area. He has been neat and tidy, he

has built up to it in a different way than before. Nico Rosberg

getting it right and Lewis Hamilton taking a bit of a breath, I have won

a third world title. I am wondering if that is his son that is with him.

Working his way through various work experience roles within the Empire.

I wonder whether that is him down there as well. I was looking at you

as opposed to the monitor! Coming through the tricky section

underneath the hotel and into the last couple of corners. You can see

how precise he was to spot the apex is just to get to the edge of the

kerb. He has been able to get the fine line between pushing just

enough and also not pushing too far. He finishes with a run on the soft

tyre, we expect this to be the main race tyre tomorrow. Although it is

slower on the initial lap, half a second, Mercedes believe, we saw 1.1

for some teams, it has better degradation. RADIO: It is not right.

We see it. Pretty self-explanatory. You get a crossover. Another lock-up

for Felipe Nasr. A crossover between the soft tyre and the super soft

tyre, you are better off being on the softer tyre, even though it is

slower on paper, because it becomes faster at a certain point. That is

what makes it the favoured race tyre. That is what

what makes it the favoured race on Sunday. It 11 laps that he has

done on the super soft tyre. Starting to get the lock-ups each

lap. That will increase the temperature going into the corner,

which will mean the degradation gets higher. The person that is making

the super soft tyre work pretty well is Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen, he has

done 13 laps, it is dropping off a bit, but generally he has been in a

position to maintain a constant pace. His last lap, Lap 14 in the

stint, but the tyres have done 19 laps, including the qualifying

simulation, that is further than most people or anybody went on the

super soft tyres last year, most people pitted between ten and 14

laps. The tyres are more robust this year, we are seeing first stint

lasting longer. year, we are seeing first stint

completely gone. Looking at the average runs between the couple

spoke and Kimi Raikkonen, they are within 0.1 seconds. Ferrari has the

race pace, if they could win the Grand Prix from the front.

They are not quite win the Grand Prix from the front.

do it on strategy in terms of a real performance, not in qualifying, and

you have to be performance, not in qualifying, and

and pull off the famous undercut, performance, not in qualifying, and

where you pick the lap before you are racing info to

where you pick the lap before you new tyre to outperform them. We will

see. Where the tyres are softer, we do see Ferrari closer to Mercedes.

It is a huge lock-up there coming into it. He is on the soft

It is a huge lock-up there coming bit less general grip. But it is

that type of lock-up that will increase the degradation. The

the corner as increase the degradation. The

the power on out of the corner. increase the degradation. The

you overstress the front tyre, it drops away from you. If you are

putting a lot of load onto drops away from you. If you are

tyre, it does not get out of the corner. You have to

tyre, it does not get out of the the way you attack into what the

apex is. The brightly illuminated pitfall at Williams,

apex is. The brightly illuminated charge of the liaison between

research and development in Oxfordshire and the race team. Such

an important pivot within Oxfordshire and the race team. Such

1 team, carrying the new parts across, making sure the team are

asking for the right things operationally and making sure

asking for the right things research and development deliver.

asking for the right things When you put them on the car, they

work. In the couple of years that he has been there, since Felipe Massa

made the move, he has done it. For an independent team, they have had a

fairly serene run this season, they have thrown a few points away

through a few strategy calls and a lack of adventure and confidence,

but on the whole, they have had a very solid season, racking up the

points, to hedge and 57, guaranteeing them third place in the

Constructors' Championship, for the second year in a row. If you had

asked them that in 2013, they would have bitten your hand off. No

question. Under a minute to go. This will be the last lap for most of the

cars. This is where the tyre makes

difference, the last sector. The chicane, then it is adverse camber.

We go through the flat-out triple right-hander, into at the hotel.

We go through the flat-out triple have seen so many lock-ups. Daniel

Ricciardo goes onto the break, then turns again into the corner, a nice

run through the double left-hander. It is tricky, you need to flood the

car into it, throw it in but then floated. Then the final corners,

car into it, throw it in but then quick momentum, and try to get the

car in and stopped and out to the final corner. This is a corner were

Red Bull were very good this morning.

He has been five seconds slower in race pace terms. The chequered flag

comes out. This is the end of the final free practice two of this 2015

championship. As always, we are left to sift through not only the end

lines at times, but also the long run performance and try and come to

conclusions about what we will see over the next two days in this final

round of the 2015 championship. Nico Rosberg finishes with a 1:46.9 on

the soft tyres. The tyres have done 18 laps across the whole session. So

clearly, that is the tyre that will be the race tyre of choice. Rosberg

ends up on top with Hamilton second, Perez third. Ricciardo was fought

for Red Bull. -- he was fourth. Alonso was certainly raising

eyebrows with his lap, which is only a second slower than the benchmark

Mercedes pace. Your conclusions, Alan? Mercedes are

looking good, but Ferrari are contenders when it comes to long

runs. As you said, qualifying will be key for them. We don't

necessarily get the true picture from Williams, but historically,

they have always been good here. And watch out for Force India, because

Nico Hulkenberg had a particularly good run on the soft tyre. We have

had a bit of reliability concern here as well, not least for Carlos

Sainz, who stopped out on circuit. We are at the end of the season. The

engines are designed to last a certain amount of time. All of the

Mercedes teams and some of the Ferraris have managed to get through

the season only using the maximum permitted force. They have not had

to take any engine penalties. We mentioned earlier that Honda already

on 12 on the back of Fernando Alonso's car, but people will be

concerned going into Sunday's Grand Prix to make sure they make it. That

is the name of the game, because they get the points at the end of

the Grand Prix. In raw pace, it looks like Mercedes are to battle

out pole position. Will be Rosberg once again, or will Hamilton finally

get the upper hand and managed to get his 50th career position? Both

get the upper hand and managed to men are highly motivated to finish

this season on a high. Ferrari, of course, want to finish their season

on a high as well. The challenge from Raikkonen looks particularly

strong this weekend, both in qualifying and long run performance.

So as they head off and do a few practice starts, that is the final

of the -- that is the end of the free practice two session and I will

hand you back to leave. They give, guys. The continuous

Mercedes battle was summed up in free practice one and two today.

Lewis Hamilton was a tenth of a second quicker than Nico Rosberg

this morning. And this evening, it was Nico Rosberg who was a tenth of

a second faster than Lewis Hamilton. It is as simple and as complicated

as that at Mercedes. It was a tough day for Carlos Sainz Jr. He had a

strong rookie season but it has been tough when it come to reliability.

We will have live coverage for you across the weekend here on the BBC

with all F1 coverage. This week, everybody's been loving

The Great Pottery Throw Down... a little bit too much.

But who isn't potty for clay? You were so nervous,

and you've just excelled yourself. This is a good sign, by the way,

when he reacts like this.