Leclerc fastest in FP2 by 0.006s over Perez
Charles Leclerc recovered from his FP1 crash to headline the second practice session at the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, pipping Sergio Perez by just 0.006 seconds.
Ferrari repaired Leclerc’s car after his Turn 15 shunt in the opening stage of Friday practice, but the Monegasque was annoyed on the radio and made his displeasure known about his rebuilt SF-24 F1 car, feeling that the steering was ‘heavy’ and elected to pit amid further handling struggles.
This caused a slight lay-off in running, and he returned to the circuit later in the session for a few exploratory laps on the medium tyre; despite an off at Turn 8, he was able to keep it out of the wall for a tilt on the soft tyres. This led him to set a 1m43.484s time, eclipsing Perez’s time from earlier.
In the early part of the session, Max Verstappen sought to reprise his role from FP1 and moved to the top of the order, although Perez soon put that in the shade with an impressive lap on the medium compound to go almost a second quicker than his team-mate.
But the two were eclipsed by Carlos Sainz, who set the medium-tyre benchmark at a 1m44.323s prior to the mid-session soft-tyre runs. Perez got within a tenth, but was unable to move to the top of the order on his follow-up run.
Sainz then continued to forge a path at the top of the order on his first run on softs, setting a 1m43.950s, and a threatening lap from Verstappen ultimately did not prise the Spaniard from the top of the timing boards as the Red Bull driver lost four tenths in the final sector.
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Perez did, however, punching in a 1m43.490s – finding a half-second advantage over Verstappen in the final sector to ensure he set the fastest time at that juncture.
Lewis Hamilton got close on a set of used softs, grabbing a time just 0.06s behind Perez to bridge the gap between the Mexican driver and the rest of the order.
Running out of sequence, Leclerc then strung together the ultimate fastest time; moving ahead of Perez with a scant margin between them.
Hamilton’s effort was good enough for third over Sainz, who was placed under investigation for appearing to impede Perez in the latter half of the lap.
Oscar Piastri led the line for McLaren with fifth, as Lando Norris was only 17th in the final timing order after bailing out of his sole hot lap. Norris had encountered a slow Pierre Gasly at Turn 18; the Alpine driver was suffering with a battery issue and inadvertently baulked the McLaren driver’s path.
Verstappen ended the session in sixth, half a second away from Leclerc’s line-leading time, while Lance Stroll was within a tenth of the championship leader in seventh.
Nico Hulkenberg was eighth ahead of George Russell, whose session came to an early end with an unspecified issue on his car. Oliver Bearman completed the top 10 in his first race for Haas, as he covers for the banned Kevin Magnussen.
