WATCH: Ride onboard with Valtteri Bottas in Free Practice 2 as he sets the fastest lap at Qatar

The floodlights of Losail International Circuit made for spectacular viewing in the second practice session of the first ever Qatar Grand Prix, and it was Valtteri Bottas who set the benchmark time in Friday's running at the track.

FP2 was the first time the drivers had a chance to lap Losail under the floodlights, and it was a crucial practice session too, providing representative conditions for both Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's Grand Prix, which will be run at the same time of day.

READ MORE: Bottas quickest ahead of Gasly and Verstappen in second Qatar practice session

Bottas set the benchmark lap time after equipping his Mercedes W12 with soft tyres mid-way through the session, eventually finishing 0.209s ahead of AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and another 0.15s ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen. As for Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton, he finished fourth in FP2.

As this is the first time F1 cars have run at the track, Bottas's time of 1m23.148s is now the track record at Losail International Circuit. Go onboard with him in the video above.