Hamilton tops Baku FP2 after dual McLaren wall-brushes

Lewis Hamilton led Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc to the top of the FP2 leaderboard at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after both McLaren drivers struck the wall on their flying laps.

Lando Norris was the first to hit the barriers when he suffered a snap of oversteer into the right-handed Turn 4 leading to the base of the castle section of the track. His rear-left tire slapped the barriers, triggering a suspension failure that forced him to crawl slowly back to pit lane.

Required repairs were too extensive to complete in the final 25 minutes of the session, leaving Norris with just seven laps for the hour and without a long-run simulation for the race.

Title leader Oscar Piastri was similarly scrappy in attempting to stitch together a quick lap, with his first tour ruined by him carrying too much speed into Turn 15. Both right-side tires bore the impact.

A quick inspection in pit lane cleared him to rejoin the session, but his follow-up lap was abandoned when he locked up into Turn 2, leaving him without a representative time.

That left the way clear for Ferrari to dominate the session, with Hamilton rocketing to top spot after a second flying lap on used softs that set the benchmark at 1m41.293s. Leclerc shadowed him just 0.074s further back to complete the Ferrari practice one-two.

Mercedes teammates George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli followed but almost half a second further back. Russell could have been closer than 0.477s off the pace, with a second flying lap delivering him what at the time was a purple first sector, but a monster moment of oversteer cresting the hill at Turn 12 forced him to abandon the attempt.

Antonelli completed his first Friday without a crash since the midseason break to get within 0.009s of his faster teammate.

Oliver Bearman was an impressive fifth for Haas with a great final-sector time, which comprises the flat-out section from Turn 16 to the finish line. Despite complaining of brake problems late, Bearman was 0.598s off the pace.

Max Verstappen was a quiet sixth and 0.609s slower than Hamilton, while Liam Lawson followed in seventh and was only 0.087s adrift in his Racing Bulls machine.

Esteban Ocon was eighth in the second Haas car at 0.874s adrift. Williams driver Alex Albon was a further 0.01s back but ahead of the crashed-out Norris.

Carlos Sainz was 11th ahead of Piastri, who completed the session despite his two near-misses, including a long run on the soft tire.

Isack Hadjar was 13th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, the Red Bull backed drivers separated by just 0.001s.

Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto was 15th ahead of Pierre Gasly in 16th.

Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin endured a big hit at the Turn 15 barriers, but the Canadian continued and completed the session in 17th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Franco Colapinto, the Argentine the only driver more than 2s off the pace.

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