Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in Friday’s second practice session for the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, overcoming earlier car issues to outpace Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
After a disrupted first practice session filled with red flags, most drivers quickly returned to the track in bright, warm conditions, completing various runs on Pirelli’s hard, medium, and soft tyres.
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Leclerc faced early concerns with his repaired Ferrari, narrowly avoiding another incident at Turn 15 and expressing frustration over a possible issue, saying, “the car is bent somewhere,” and sighing, “it’s impossible” as his team struggled to identify the problem in the data.
Meanwhile, his teammate Carlos Sainz brushed the wall at Turn 1, Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu used the escape road at Turn 3, and reigning champion Max Verstappen nearly collided with the Turn 5 barriers after locking up under braking.
Sainz initially set the pace with a 1m 44.323s on medium tyres, just ahead of two-time Baku winner Perez, with Hamilton six-tenths behind on hard tyres.
Around 20 minutes into the session, drivers switched to soft tyres for qualifying-style runs. Sainz posted a 1m 43.950s to stay on top, followed by Oscar Piastri, Verstappen, Lance Stroll, Hamilton, and Perez, while Haas’ stand-in driver Ollie Bearman impressed with seventh.
Lando Norris was on a fast lap before encountering a slow-moving Pierre Gasly in the final sector, forcing the McLaren driver to back off. Gasly apologized over the radio, explaining he was dealing with battery issues.
Perez later improved to take the lead with a 1m 43.490s lap, while replays showed incidents for Verstappen, Sainz, rookie Franco Colapinto, and Leclerc, who continued to struggle despite checks in the Ferrari garage.
In the final push, Leclerc overcame his earlier difficulties to clock a 1m 43.484s, topping the timesheets ahead of Perez, Hamilton, Sainz (who went off at Turn 7), Piastri, and Verstappen.
Stroll was the fastest Aston Martin in seventh, with George Russell’s out-of-sync lap placing him between the Haas cars of Nico Hulkenberg (who ran off at Turn 15) and Bearman.
Yuki Tsunoda and Fernando Alonso finished P11 and P12, respectively, followed by Williams’ Alex Albon and Colapinto in 13th and 14th. Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo, and Norris—who was compromised on his soft tyre run—completed the top 17.
Alpine struggled, with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon in 18th and 19th, Ocon having received a new power unit after MGU-H issues in FP1, while Zhou finished last.
Azerbaijan GP FP2 Results
2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix FP2, 13 September 2024
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