Russell dominates second F1 practice session at Baku

George Russell has dominated the second practice session at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Russell, who topped FP1, was peerless in Thursday’s second session, reeling off a series of fastest laps on a single set of softs that at one point had him a massive 0.827s quicker than any other driver.

His best time of 1m 43.347s was built on purple times in the second and third sectors, and contrary to expectations, his margin was largest in the middle split rather than the flat-out final sector, conditions in which Mercedes has tended to be at its strongest.

Antonelli, who missed almost all of FP1, improved late to take second place but was a distant 0.552s slower than his teammate, almost all of which was in the tighter middle split.

The Italian was equipped with a different engine after his hydraulics failure in opening practice. The affected engine isn’t thought to have a problem, but the team needed to clean the extinguisher fluid sprayed on the power unit by the marshals.

Max Verstappen completed the top three for Red Bull Racing, but the Dutchman was 0.827s off the pace.

Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were fourth and fifth but even further adrift, lapping 1.126s and 1.318s off the pace respectively, the gap between them decided by the latter’s poorer final sector.

Hamilton will see the stewards after the session to answer allegations of impeding Liam Lawson at the high-speed and blind Turn 18. Hamilton was traveling slowly on the racing line as Lawson rushed up behind him at full speed, forcing him to back out of his lap.

Lando Norris was sixth for McLaren, but although he set a purple first sector, he was more than 0.7s slower than Russell in the final split, leaving him 1.484s off the pace overall. He had more pace in hand, however, abandoning what likely would have been his quickest lap to switch to a race simulation run.

Pierre Gasly slotted into seventh, only 0.012s behind Norris, to Oscar Piastri from his teammate, the Australian just 0.014s further back.

Isack Hadjar recovered from his FP1 stoppage to finish the session ninth for Red Bull Racing and 1.521s off the pace, while Esteban Ocon completed the top 10 as the final driver within 2s of the leader.

Franco Colapinto was 11th ahead of Lawson and a strong Sergio Perez, who benefited from a powerful slipstream from Piastri to rocket to 13th for Cadillac.

Audi teammates Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg were 14th and 15th ahead of Williams duo Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.

Arvid Lindblad crashed out of the session at Turn 8, the beginning of the castle section, where he clipped the outside barrier with his front-right wheel. He crawled to the top of the hill and parked his car, causing a 10m red flag to collect his Racing Bulls car.

Valtteri Bottas was 19th ahead of Oliver Bearman, whose car switched itself off as he left pit lane following the red flag, forcing him to abandon his Haas in the run-off zone at Turn 2.

Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso propped up the order, the latter completing only nine laps with a suspected oil leak in his fresh Honda engine, for which he will take a back-of-grid penalty – along with Stroll – for Saturday’s grand prix.