Ferrari lead the way again through Vettel as Kubica posts Williams' quickest time of the test on Day Two
Wednesday 29 November 2017 15:27, UK
Sebastian Vettel ensured Ferrari finished the year on top after setting the pace on Day Two of the Abu Dhabi test, rounding off Formula 1's track action for 2017.
Robert Kubica also impressed for Williams at Yas Marina, finishing with the team's quickest time of the two-day tyre test.
The Pole, hoping to return to F1 with the Grove outfit after a six-year absence, completed 28 laps in the FW40 after Sergey Sirotkin's lengthy stint in the morning session.
But Vettel, following on from Raikkonen topping the timesheets on Day One, led the field with a best of 1:37.551 before lunch - a time that was just 1.2seconds slower than Valtteri Bottas' pole lap in the weekend's qualifying session.
Kubica completes Williams test
F1 2018: Dates and driver line-ups
Vettel racked up 118 laps, more than double race distance, on Day Two and was almost a second clear of closest challenger Bottas, though the Mercedes driver did complete 23 more laps.
Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull with a 1:38.736 while Sergio Perez, replacing Esteban Ocon for Force India in the afternoon, edged out his team-mate for fourth place.
Most of the attention was on Williams, however, with the team continuing its evaluation of non-racing drivers as they close in on a 2018 line-up announcement.
Sirotkin made his debut for the Grove team and was in the car for the majority of the day, finishing with 86 laps under his belt and a best time of 1:39.947 on the soft tyre.
Kubica, who completed 100 laps on Day One and felt "confident and comfortable", out-paced the Renault reserve driver by three tenths of a second but, as ever with testing, it is rarely wise to read too much into headline times - particularly as Kubica posted his quickest lap on Pirelli's new hypersoft tyre.
His time was, however, a tenth of a second quicker than Lance Stroll, who ran on Tuesday, on the same compound.
It was a case of deja vu for McLaren as Stoffel Vandoorne, a day after Fernando Alonso's off, followed his team-mate into the barriers in the final sector in the morning session. The Belgian, however, still clocked more than a century of laps.
Reserve driver Lando Norris was in the other McLaren, in a blind Pirelli test that was rescheduled following the cancellation in Brazil earlier this month.
Charles Leclerc was the busiest driver of the day, completing a mighty 149 laps for Sauber, who confirmed a new Alfa Romeo partnership on Wednesday.
