Lewis Hamilton led the way in an intriguing second practice session at Baku which ended with the fastest McLaren in 10th place.
This was because the two drivers who can clinch the constructors’ championship for McLaren this weekend each hit the wall during the session.
Lando Norris, who led the opening hour of practice, came a cropper when the rear end of his MCL39 got away from him at the exit of turn four. He clipped the unyielding wall, broke something in his left-rear suspension and had to crawl back to the pits, his car pulling in opposing directions at once.
Oscar Piastri’s brush with the barriers did less damage to his car but also prevented him setting a representative lap time. He understeered into the softer barrier at the exit of turn 15, where several other drivers also made mistakes.
That opened the door for the Ferrari drivers to take advantage. The harder tyres appeared to perform better than the softs to begin with and Hamilton initially set the pace on mediums. Charles Leclerc took the top time off him on softs, lapping just two thousandths of a second away from the pole position time he set last year, but Hamilton hit back to end the day on top.
Only the Mercedes drivers got within half a second of the pair in the SF-25s. George Russell led the way but nearly chucked his car into a barrier at turn 12. Andrea Kimi Antonelli finally enjoyed a trouble-free Friday and ended up just a hundredth of a second slower than his team mate.
Behind that quartet on soft tyres, Oliver Bearman used a set of mediums to put his Haas into a strong fifth. That was despite him twice locking up and running wide at turn eight, leading Bearman to complain about his brakes.
Bearman’s lap left Max Verstappen sixth for Red Bull, half a second faster than his team mate in 14th. Liam Lawson was the quicker of the two Racing Bulls drivers again in seventh.
Esteban Ocon ensured both Haas drivers appeared in the top 10. Alexander Albon was ninth for Williams, but McLaren could only manage 10th with Norris and 12th for Piastri.
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2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix second practice result
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