Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the pace during Friday’s second practice session for Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
During Soft tyre runs Leclerc moved to the front with a time of 1:43.224, leaving him with an advantage of over two-tenths of a second on Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Max Verstappen was third overall for Red Bull after team-mate Perez disrupted his first attempt at a qualifying simulation.
Perez went off into the Turn 15 escape road, causing yellow flags, prompting Verstappen and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to back off.
While Verstappen had another crack and claimed third Sainz wound up fifth after opting against a further lap, with his best time ultimately coming on the Medium tyres.
Fernando Alonso was fourth overall for Alpine as the squad displayed strong straight-line speed through the throttle-heavy final sector of the lap.
AlphaTauri capped an encouraging Friday as Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda classified sixth and eighth respectively, either side of lead Mercedes driver George Russell.
Mercedes lacked pace on both short and long runs, on different tyre compounds, with Lewis Hamilton voicing his shock at being two seconds off Leclerc during the early laps on Mediums.
Hamilton ultimately wound up 12th overall, 1.6s behind Leclerc, after the Soft tyre runs.
Esteban Ocon was ninth, ensuring both Alpines were in the front half of the field, while Lando Norris narrowly put McLaren into the top 10, a hundredth of a second ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel.
Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo were 13th and 14th respectively, ahead of the Alfa Romeo drivers, who had a low-key day in 15th and 16th, Valtteri Bottas in front of Zhou Guanyu.
Kevin Magnussen was 17th for Haas, with Mick Schumacher 19th, while Williams’ Alexander Albon had a bizarre incident in the session that limited his running.
Albon turned in too early to the right-hand kink at Turn 17, brushing the wall with the right-hand-side of the car, and had to return to the garage for repairs.
Nicholas Latifi brought up the rear of the 20-driver field.
Saturday’s final practice session is scheduled for 15:00 local time
