Practice 2 Report - 2 Busy

By Dan Knutson

Free Practice 2 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a very busy session. The morning practice session had virtually been wiped out after George Russell's Williams pulled out a manhole drain cover that had been dislodged by Charles Leclerc's Ferrari. So the teams had lots of work to do with both short and long runs to prepare their cars for qualifying and the race.

Ferrari were comfortably quickest in FP2, with Leclerc ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas; Ferrari – Vettel and Leclerc; Red Bull TAG Heuer –Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly; Renault – Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg; Haas Ferrari – Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen; McLaren Renault – Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris; Racing Point Mercedes – Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll; Alfa Romeo Ferrari – Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi; Toro Rosso Honda – Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon; Williams Mercedes – Russell and Robert Kubica.

Officials had checked all the manhole covers during the break between the sessions, and they were satisfied that it was safe for the drivers to go out in FP2.

Russell had to sit out the session while the Williams mechanics built up a new car.

"It has broken our floor and cracked our chassis," Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams told Sky TV. "More importantly, we've just got ourselves back on our feet, when we were just starting to get all our upgrades, so it's disappointing."

The team estimated it would cost $130,000 to repair the car.

Kvyat was also sitting in the garage while crew repaired the power steering on his Toro Rosso.

Mercedes, the only team not to turn a lap in the morning, sent its drivers Bottas and Hamilton out immediately in FP2.

The ambient temperature at the start of the 90-minute session was 62 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 103 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Centigrade).

The track immediately filled with cars. The drivers were going faster and faster, and as they came up to speed some of them including Hamilton, Bottas and Ricciardo slid off down the escape roads.

It was worse for Stroll who clipped the wall on an escape road at Turn 2, and that brought the red flags 15 minutes into FP2 so that his car could be retrieved. He was out for the rest of the session.

At the time, Leclerc was quickest with a time of 1:44.748. He had hit the wall at Turn 7 but his car was not badly damaged.

Hamilton was second, 0.723 of a second slower. Next came Vettel, Bottas, Albon and Raikkonen.

After an 11-minute delay the session was restarted. So did the escape road visits as Vettel went straight at Turn 2.

Many drivers were having problems getting their tires to heat up on the out lap.

Leclerc, meanwhile, got down to a 1:43.598 followed by a 1:43.376 and a 1:42.872 on Pirellis soft compound tires. Vettel finally got up to speed but was still 0.324 of a second behind his teammate.

The Mercedes drivers were trying the soft Pirelli slicks, but Hamilton, third, was still 0.669 off Leclerc.

Bottas was third ahead of Albon, Gasly, Magnussen, Verstappen, Giovinazzi and Perez halfway through FP2.

Gasly was the next to visit an escape road – at Turn 3. Then Ricciardo did the same at Turn 15.

"It is tricky out there, it is dusty," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told Sky TV.

Repairs completed, Kvyat was now on track.

Verstappen's soft tire qualifying simulation hauled his Red Bull up to fourth, albeit 0.921 of a second slower than Leclerc. The soft tire needed a couple laps to reach its prime.

In the last third of FP2 Leclerc and others started to do their long run race sims. Not that that stopped them – Grosjean, Perez, Norris – going wide or having to go down the escape roads after locking up their brakes.

A few minutes later Kvyat, who had just posted the sixth best time, Sainz, Albon, hit the wall at Turn 7.

"I'm sorry guys, the suspension is gone," he radioed as the session was red flagged.

Force India took advantage of the delays to try get Stroll's car fixed so that he could go out at the end of the session. He didn't get the chance in the end.

Just over 15 minutes remained when the green lights restarted FP2. Once again the track got busy as the drivers continued to do long runs and compare the soft and medium compound tires.

Grosjean, Giovinazzi and Gasly had their escape moments.

The top ten at the end of the busy FP2 were: Leclerc, Vettel, Hamilton, Verstappen, Bottas, Kvyat, Sainz, Albon, Gasly and Norris.