The Finn led the way on both the middle and soft mix, finishing the field more than two-tenths ahead of the field to top the more representative session held under the lights at the Losail International Circuit.
Bottas had canceled a faster lap due to track restrictions before showing his fastest legal effort, a 1: 23.148s, during his second run on soft tires.
Just like in FP1, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly finished second as he continued his impressive start to the weekend while championship leaders Max Verstappen was 0.350 seconds back in his Red Bull.
Verstappen needed two attempts on softs to overtake title rival Lewis Hamilton, who was fourth fastest and 0.422 seconds behind his Mercedes team-mate.
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As in qualifying in Interlagos last weekend, the Red Bull rear wing was strange at the end of the straight. A DRS problem stopped Verstappen briefly in the garage before his qualifying simulation run.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was within half a second behind Bottas and finished fifth, ahead of leading Aston Martin from Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunodas AlphaTauri.
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Sergio Perez could only drive a good time for eighth place in his Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz completed the top 10 for Aston Martin and Ferrari respectively.
Traffic on the narrow, fast-flowing Losail route proved problematic again, ruining a number of low-fueled drivers before attention was drawn to high-fueled racing simulations.
In contrast to FP1 – which took place during the heat of the afternoon in Qatar – FP2 was held at dusk, with lower track temperatures, which will be seen again in qualifying and in the race.
Haas rookie Nikita Mazepin did not take part in the second practice session due to a chassis change after he damaged his car in FP1 via the curbs.
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