Azerbaijan GP FP2: Hamilton tops incident packed session, McLaren struggle
F1 NewsFriday, 19 September 2025 at 15:05
Lewis Hamilton ended the second practice session for the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix fastest of all with Charles Leclerc second after 60 minutes of running with driver errors aplenty.
Hamilton appeared to be in good form regardless of the tyre compound bolted to his SF-25, as he was chasing Leclerc hard on Mediums when the Monegasque was on Softs.
In the end, the seven-time Formula 1 Champion posted a 1:41.293 to go fastest of all (on the Softs) and just 0.074s ahead of Leclerc in the sister Ferrari.
Mercedes continued their decent form as George Russell was third fastest, albeit 0.477s off the pace after surviving a huge moment when he hit the barriers at Turn 12.
Kimi Antonelli was fourth fastest, 0.009s behind his teammate and ahead of Ollie Bearman who was fifth fastest in the Haas, 0.598s off the top.
Red Bull Racing did not have a strong session as Max Verstappen was sixth fastest in his RB21, 0.609s down on Hamilton's time and 0.087s ahead of Liam Lawson who was seventh for the Racing Bulls.
Esteban Ocon concluded a strong session for Haas and was eighth fastest ahead of Alex Albon who was ninth in the Williams with Lando Norris completing the top ten.
Which brings us to McLaren who had a terrible session which Norris ending it in the barriers with a heavily damaged MCL39 meaning he was out of the running almost halfway through.
Oscar Piastri was not in a better situation as he had multiple moments with the barriers as it seemed as if the MCL39 was a tough car to handle.
The Australian was lucky enough to keep going but ended his session 12th fastest and one second off the pace.
The main talking point will be the choice of tyres for qualifying as once again, the C6 tyre - the Soft - seems to be tricky and may not last the whole lap with some teams flirting with the Medium as a potentially better tyre for qualifying.
Hamilton's pace on the Mediums was impressive which will be food for thought despite his late improvement when he bolted on the Softs. He needed to attempts on the red-walled tyres to improve though.
Buildup towards FP2
The first practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was shortened thanks to a long Red Flag period caused by Carlos Sainz driving over the kerbs at Turn 16 damaging the kerbs.
But in the end, it was Norris and Piastri that ended up on the top for McLaren while Verstappen was over a second off the pace given that he couldn't post a fast lap towards the end of the session after an error.
Ferrari seemed to be in the mix with Leclerc chasing the McLarens while Hamilton damaged his car following a contact with the barriers at Turn 5.
Williams showed strong pace early on, but they also did that in Monza as well and then faded away while it remains to see whether Mercedes can maintain their early form.
But the shortened session meant making any predictions is not really smart at this point.
Championship leader, Piastri suffered a power unit scare in FP1 and was lucky that the Red Flag meant his rivals also missed out on running time, so is that issue sorted?
Pirelli brought their C6 compound this weekend, their softest in their range which was a tricky one for the team before, so will it be the best qualifying tyre or will the C5 do the job.
It was a dusty track that we saw in FP1 but conditions should be better for FP2 while rain is expected to hit the track overnight.
FP2 Session Highlights
Compared to FP1, the track temperature did not change much, and was one degree higher than the 32 degrees Celsius recorded earlier while the ambient temperatures remained at 25 degrees. It was a bit cloudy though.
The session was given the green light but drivers took their time getting out on track, but with five minutes elapsed, the action ramped up and the session was properly underway.
Lawson brought out the first Yellow Flag of the session after locking up and going deep into Turn 15 then Hamilton did the same at Turn 7 and just managed not to end up in the barriers.
Most of the teams started on the Soft tyre while a few went for the Mediums and Softs as they were trying to find out which tyre will be best for qualifying. Red-walled or Yellow-walled.
Soon after that, Bearman messed up his braking going into Turn 8 and went into the runoff area.
Leclerc posted the fastest lap time, 15 minutes into the session, but it wasn't a perfect one as replay showed him tapping the barriers with his rear right tyre coming out of Turn3.
After that, Lance Stroll suffered from a snap of oversteer and smacked the the barriers at Turn 15 with his rear right tyre. Leclerc then informed the team that he his the wall "quite hard" and replay showed that he hit the rear left this time.
The track became a bit quiet towards half time as drivers returned to the pits for some preparation and setup changed before the second run.
Soon after the action resumed, Norris banged his McLaren into the barrier coming out of Turn 4 and damaged the rear left suspension and limped back to the pits, his car crabbing out on track.
The Briton carried too much speed and his car understeered and he couldn't turn in consequently hitting the wall. He managed to get back into the pits and stepped out of his car.
Then Piastri gave his MCL39 a beating at Turn 15 hitting it with both right side tyres, but somehow got away with it, unlike his teammate who was out of the session.
Piastri soon after had a lockup in Turn 2 but also got away with it...
Interestingly, Hamilton went for a run on new Soft tyres but couldn't deliver a better lap time than the one he did on Mediums!
Russell was on a good lap, 16 minutes from the end, and posted the best first sector, then lost his car in Turn 12, hit the barrier and aborted. He pitted for a checkup.
Hamilton then tried another lap on Softs and this time improved and went to the top of the timing screens - 13 minutes from the end of the session.
Driver errors continued as Bearman messed up his braking at Turn 8 and bailed out into the runoff area having to reverse back on track causing a momentarily Yellow Flag.
Sainz after that joined the wall-hitter and scrapped the wall ahead of Turn 16 on the right side of his Williams.
Azerbaijan GP FP2 Classification
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