FP2: Leclerc tops second practice with a brilliant late lap after an erratic day in Baku
Having crashed into the barriers with his Ferrari in the opening practice, Italian Grand Prix winner Charles Leclerc bounced back to top the second one-hour session after a difficult Friday in Baku. F1Technical's lead journalist Balazs Szabo reports on Free Practice 2.
Charles Leclerc had a difficult start to his race weekend in Baku, having crashed into the barriers on his first soft-tyre hot lap in Free Practice 1. Although Ferrari seemingly repaired his car for the second one-hour practice, but he constantly complained about the behaviour of his SF-24 on his first laps on the medium compound.
While his race engineer Bryan Bozzi claimed that the team did not see any issues through the data, the Monegasque kept complaining, reporting that “the car is bent somewhere”.
Having then spent the middle part of the session in his garage while Ferrari was inspecting the car, Leclerc managed to put his problems to one side and charged to the top of the timesheets on a 1m 43.484s, slotting ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Perez.
Lewis Hamilton used the hard compound on his first run, setting an impressive lap on the hard compound. His first soft-tyre hot lap was not brilliant, but a second effort saw him end up third on the leaderboard.
Ferrari's Madrid-born driver, Carlos Sainz had a series of moments in FP2, but his best effort was enough for him to take fourth, from Oscar Piastri in P5.
Reigning champion Max Verstappen looked quickest after the first two sectors on his flying lap, but he lost a big chunk of time in the final sector to end up sixth.
McLaren's Lando Norris looked quick, but he encountered traffic in the last sector on his quick lap which forced him to abort his effort. The Briton therefore ended up down in P17 with his medium-tyre lap.
Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll enjoyed an encouraging day in his AMR24, having ended the second sixty-minute practice session in seventh.
George Russell spent the majority of the session in his garage after Mercedes was forced to complete a precautionary engine change prior to FP2. The Briton ended up ninth ahead of Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg while Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman, who replaces Kevin Magnussen at Haas this weekend, took an impressive 10th.
Yuki Tsunoda and Fernando Alonso followed in P11 and P12 respectively, with Williams duo Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto winding up 13th and 14th, in front of Vatteri Bottas’ Kick Sauber and Daniel Ricciardo in the other RB.
Alpine pair Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were a lowly 18th and 19th as the chequered flag dropped, the latter having also been given a replacement power unit after an MGU-H issue of his own in FP1, as Sauber driver Zhou Guanyu brought up the rear.
