Charles Leclerc led a Ferrari 1-2 with Sebastian Vettel in second in the second practice session of F1 Azerbaijan GP with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in third.
After the cancellation of FP1 session due to Williams’ George Russell running over a loose drain cover, the FP2 session in F1 Azerbaijan GP at the Baku City Circuit started on time as the teams and drivers head out quickly to gather crucial data for the weekend.
It wasn’t a straightforward start though as several drivers started to have off moments on a green circuit with wind bringing in more dust on the layout. Just as the drivers started on with their race programme, the session was red flagged for an incident.
Racing Point’s Lance Stroll hit the barrier at Turn 2 after a slight delay in decision-making. The Canadian came in hot at Turn 2 and quickly realised that he wouldn’t be able to make the corner. As he decided to take the run-off, his left-front clipped the barrier.
His car was towed away as the session re-started. There was another case of red flag towards the end of the session when Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat hit the wall at Turn 7. The Russian missed half of the session due to a power steering issue.
As he was making up for the lost time, he pushed a little too hard when he lost the rear in the corner to hit the wall and break his suspension with fire then blowing out from the brakes. Amid all the dramas, it was Ferrari’s Leclerc (1m42.872s) with the quickest time.
Leclerc, himself, had a brush with the wall at Turn 7 but had enough to set the pace as the two Ferrari drivers worked together in terms of getting a tow at the main straight, probably practicing for Q3, as they ended up 1-2 with Vettel (1m43.196s) in second.
Both had off moments in their run with Mercedes’ Hamilton (1m43.541s) finishing third ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen (1m43.793s), who did a solid job in fourth to beat Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas (1m44.003s).
The Finn had a dodgy session,himself, which included multiple offs. Despite the crash, Kvyat (1m44.177s) finished as the best of the rest in sixth with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz (1m44.183s) slotting in between the Toro Rosso drivers with Alexander Albon in eighth.
The Thai clocked a 1m44.216s to finish ahead of Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly (1m44.240s), who also had an off. The Top 10 in Azerbaijan GP FP2 session was then covered by McLaren’s Lando Norris (1m44.295s) with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m44.901s) just missing on it.
There was drama involving Magnussen and Hamilton at the very end of the session when the two went wheel-to-wheel for couple of corners and eventually made slight contact. Meanwhile, behind the Dane was Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi.
The Italian also had an off moment but clocked a 1m45.366s to be ahead of his teammate Kimi Raikkonen (1m45.482s), who finished 14th as Racing Point’s Sergio Perez (1m45.436s) was sandwiched between the two Alfa Romeo drivers.
Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m45.483s) was only 15th after the Australian completed his run early as he used up his allocated tyres with Haas’ Romain Grosjean (1m45.618s) finishing 16th from the other Renault of Nico Hulkenberg (1m45.717s).
Having missed of the session, Stroll (1m47.875s) was still classified in 18th with just the eight laps as despite the efforts of the team, the Canadian couldn’t take the track. He still managed to beat Williams’ Robert Kubica (1m48.111s), who was 19th.