Charles Leclerc bounced back from his FP1 crash and went fastest fastest in the second practice session for the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
However, FP2 was far from being a smooth session for the Monegasque, who complained about the steering of his rebuilt car at the start insisting on going back into the pits for the Ferrari mechanics to have a look.
Towards the end of the session and after emerging from the garage, Leclerc went fastest from Sergio Perez who was second fastest.
Seven-time Formula 1 Champion Lewis Hamilton was third fastest in the Mercedes, while his teammate George Russell spent half the session in the garage as Mercedes completed a power unit change after a problem was found between sessions.
Carlos Sainz was behind Hamilton in fourth and ahead of Oscar Piastri, fifth in the McLaren while Max Verstappen was down in sixth.
Worth noting that Red Bull were running different floor specs on their cars, Verstappen having the older spec which may explain the gap to Perez.
The Dutchman was also losing so much time in the final sector, approximately four tenths, which suggests Red Bull are yet to turn up their power unit.
Lance Stroll was seventh fastest ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in eighth with Russell ninth fastest while Oliver Bearman was an impressive tenth.
Worth noting the gap from first to third was less than a tenth, a gap that covered the faster Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes. McLaren are yet to show their hand.
Buildup towards FP2
The first practice session for the Azerbaijan GP was quite an eventful one with Leclerc and Colapinto crashing while several other drivers had off moments as they tried to get to grips with the grip-less Baku track.
Verstappen was fastest after a last minute flying lap when the track was at its best, and while it is too soon to deliver any judgement, the Bulls did not seem as bad as they were in Zandvoort and Monza.
McLaren are yet to show their hand, but Mercedes feature at the sharp end, but we have seen them doing that before, only to fade out in qualifying and the race so let's not hold out breath waiting for a Mercedes breakthrough.
Ferrari's momentum from Monza ended up in the wall where Leclerc crashed, and while he was showing the decent pace before his accident, the lost practice time will have an impact, while Sainz flirted with the top a bit.
So let's see what FP2 has to offer.
FP2 Session Highlights
Dry and clear conditions continued into FP2, with track temperature slightly dropping to 39 degrees Celsius while the air temperature also dropped to 29 degrees.
Verstappen was eager to start and was leading the pack waiting at the pitlane exit for the green light, the Dutchman having Soft tyres bolted to his RB20, but soon switched to Mediums like all the other drivers.
Leclerc in the repaired SF-24 was asking his team to check his car as he was facing similar issues to what Lando Norris experienced in FP1, as his steering felt heavy on the left-hand corners and light on the right.
Meanwhile, Williams continued working on putting Franco Colapinto's car together. He joined the action 13 minutes into the session
Hamilton was not happy with his windshield while Leclerc radioed again: "Check the data but I think the car is bent somewhere."
Norris on the other hand had a moment on the kerbs at Turn 16, the floor of his MCL38 taking quite a beating.
After asking his team for updates, Leclerc soon was fed up refusing to driving his car in the state it was in and expressed his surprise how the team did not pinpoint the issue from the data.
Verstappen soon radioed: "Literally at the apex, the car just understeers."
Verstappen then brought out the Yellow flag as he locked up at Turn 6 and just missed hitting the barrier. He was soon soon back on his way.
Russell remained in the garage as Mercedes worked on changing the engine of his W15, a precautionary engine change according to the team.
Zhou Guanyu locked up going into Turn 3 and did the smart thing steering his Sauber into the run-off area.
Ferrari started looking into Leclerc's car with the front wing and nose off the SF-24 as the Ferrari staff covered the car from onlookers.
With 39 minutes remaining, Tsunoda was the first driver to switch onto the Soft tyres to start some qualifying work.
Perez, Verstappen, Norris and the other drivers followed suit starting their qualifying runs. Verstappen complains about visibility due to the sun.
Sainz went fastest, then Verstappen went second fastest despite being faster than Sainz in the first two sectors, but losing all his advantage - over four tenths - in the final sector.
Piastri soon went second fastest, only for Perez to have a run after that and go to the top of the pile. Red Bull were running back to back tests on different floor specs.
Verstappen went deep at Turn 7 and ended up in the run-off area. Leclerc had a similar moment at Turn 8, while Sainz also had a moment later.
Colapinto was to close the the barrier at Turn 13, brushing it with his rear right tyre, while Leclerc had a mini-drift moment at Turn 1, but managed not to touch any barriers. Verstappen also went super close to the wall at Turn 2, but also did not touch.
After Mercedes finished work on Russell's car, they sent him out with 35 minutes remaining.
The fast laps yielded the following order: Perez - Hamilton - Sainz - Piastri - Verstappen - Stroll - Leclerc - Hulkenberg - Bearman - Yuki Tsunoda. (Noting that Leclerc was out of sync after wasting time in the garage).
While other drivers switched back to harder compounds, Leclerc bolted on a set of Softs and went to the top of the timing screens.
Replay showed several off moments and lockups for Norris, Hulkenberg, and Sainz. No damage to anyone though.
Two minutes from the end, Mercedes asked Russell to box as they were having an issue with the car.
The session ended with the drivers performing practice starts.
How they finished
Leclerc posted a 1:43.484 to go 0.006s faster from second-placed Perez with Hamilton 0.060s behind the Mexican in third.
A 0.4s gap followed after which Sainz came in fourth, 0.033s ahead of Piastri in fifth, the latter in turn 0.046s ahead of Verstappen in sixth.
Stroll was seventh, 0.609s off off the pace while Hulkenberg was 0.382s further down the line in eighth.
Russell was ninth, over one second away from Leclerc, with Bearman 0.011s behind the Mercedes driver in tenth.
Azerbaijan GP FP2 Classification
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