F1 News: Leclerc nips Perez in Practice 2 for 2024 Azerbaijan GP

After crashing in Practice 1, Charles Leclerc turned a lap of 1m43.484s in his #16 Ferrari to top practice 2 for the 2024 Azerbaijan GP on the Baku City Circuit where only 0.066s separated the top 3.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Leclerc’s time was just 0.006s faster than the #11 Red Bull of Sergio Perez as the track continues to evolve. Perez is the only multiple time winner here.

Lewis Hamilton put his #44 Mercedes in third, 0.066s behind Leclerc.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was 4th for Ferrari, 0.466s behind Leclerc.

Oscar Piastri was 5th for McLaren, 0.499s behind the Ferrari driver.

Perhaps the fastest driver was really Max Verstappen who was mighty quick in Sector 1 and 2 but lost a lot of time in the 100% throttle Sector 3 as he had no tow and his engine was turned down. Verstappen was easily fastest in Practice 1.

Race Control noted a moment of impeding between Perez and Sainz, the replays showing Sainz dawdling in the middle of the track, causing Perez on a faster lap to swerve and throw his hand in the air in frustration.

As Race Control note a moment of impeding between Perez and Sainz, the replays come in, and it was actually quite close. Sainz was dawdling in the middle of the track, causing Perez on a faster lap to swerve and throw his hand in the air in frustration.

Lando Norris had been on course for a rapid lap until he encountered the slow-moving Pierre Gasly in the final sector, forcing the McLaren driver to back out of it while his Alpine rival got on the radio to apologize and report that he was trying to deal with battery issues.

Another attempt from Perez saw him take over at the top, the Mexican getting down to a 1m 43.490s, while replays showed moments for Verstappen, Sainz, rookie Franco Colapinto and Leclerc, who still seemed uncomfortable at the wheel after extensive checks in the Ferrari garage.

As the final push laps filtered through, Leclerc managed to put his problems to one side and charged to the top of the timesheets on a 1m 43.484s, slotting ahead of Perez, an improved effort from Hamilton, Sainz (who had another off at Turn 7), Piastri and Verstappen.

Stroll was the fastest Aston Martin runner in seventh, while an out-of-sync lap from George Russell – whose car underwent a precautionary engine change prior to FP2 – put his Mercedes between the Haas machines of Hulkenberg (who took to the run-off at Turn 15 late on) and Bearman.

Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top-10 places from Fernando Alonso, with Williams duo Alex Albon and Colapinto winding up 13th and 14th respectively, in front of Vatteri Bottas’s Kick Sauber, Daniel Ricciardo in the other RB and the aforementioned Norris (having been compromised on that soft run).

So, Leclerc is on top of the pile in FP2 with a 1m 43.484s. He’s been on pole here for the last three years, but has yet to win this race. What an up and down day he has had, after that crash earlier on.

If he keeps his car in one piece, he has to be in the mix for pole tomorrow. Big if that, as he does have previous here – who can forget his “I am stupid” radio from a few years back.

2024 Azerbaijan GP Practice 2 Results