Russell leads Mercedes 1-2 in Baku FP2 as Antonelli, Lindblad and Alonso all hit trouble

George Russell topped a disrupted second practice session at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Thursday, posting a 1m43.347s to lead Mercedes team-mate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli by five tenths on the 6km Baku street circuit.

The Silver Arrows locked out the top two positions on a day when several rivals ran into serious trouble, leaving Mercedes looking ominously quick on the power-hungry layout along the Caspian Sea.

The session was halted by a red flag just 20 minutes in after Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad tagged the protruding Turn 9 wall at the narrow castle section — a UNESCO heritage site the circuit loops around. The stoppage lasted until the halfway mark while debris was cleared, and on the resumption Haas driver Oliver Bearman suffered a power unit failure coming out of the pits, ending his afternoon early.

Max Verstappen had set the early medium-tyre benchmark before the soft-tyre runs began in earnest. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was the first to undercut the Dutchman with a 1m44.473s, but FP1 pacesetter Russell then took command with a 1m43.759s — seven tenths clear of the Ferrari — before improving again to his final best. Antonelli, who had sat out a chunk of first practice with a mechanical issue, slotted into second, while Verstappen ended up third, more than eight tenths adrift of Russell.

Lewis Hamilton was fifth, two tenths behind Leclerc, with Lando Norris sixth for McLaren. The Woking outfit arrived in Baku with a sizeable upgrade package targeting low-speed performance but was still optimising the updated car, and Norris did not complete a representative qualifying simulation, finishing 1.5 seconds off the pace. Pierre Gasly split the two McLarens in seventh ahead of Oscar Piastri, with Isack Hadjar and Esteban Ocon completing the top ten.

Fernando Alonso added to the day’s mechanical woes when a suspected oil leak in his power unit confined the Aston Martin driver to the garage after only nine laps.

With the Azerbaijan race scheduled for Saturday to respect a national holiday on Sunday, Friday will serve as the final practice day before qualifying.