Leclerc closes Friday in front in Baku

Ferrari trounced Red Bull in the second free practice for the Azerbaijan GP, with Charles Leclerc beating Sergio Perez.

The Monegasque clocked 1'43.224s on his best lap on soft tires and finished 0.248s ahead of the Mexican.

Max Verstappen was third, followed by Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, and Pierre Gasly.

Leclerc held the top spot for much of the hour, but seemed to have a moment of concern in the final minutes. He wondered if his engine had a problem, but his engineers assured him that everything was fine.

The first practice had been marked by the difficulties that many teams faced with the quiques.

The problem has been common for Mercedes in 2022, but the silver arrows apparently improved in TL2, with both drivers riding in the top 10 throughout most of the session.

After the problem on his rear wing in TL1, Verstappen remained in the garage in the early stages of the second practice while the mechanics worked on the component.

He showed good pace when he eventually got on track, but had a fast lap ruined in the second half of the session when his teammate Perez slipped at turn 16 and brought out the yellow flag.

As in the morning, several drivers made mistakes. Lando Norris was the first and others like Sebastian Vettel and Kevin Magnussen got away during the hour.

Not even Leclerc was immune. The Ferrari driver caused a brief yellow flag when he locked his wheels and went straight through turn 7.

Others were unable to avoid hitting the barriers. Alex Albon hit the wall at turn 17 and had to return to the pits to assess the damage.

AlphaTauri continued to impress, and Yuki Tsunoda was particularly strong on a circuit where he had a good result last year. His teammate Gasly also had a solid TL2.

Alpine has also been attracting attention. Alonso was competitive again after his fifth place in first practice, and like Tsunoda, he will be looking to repeat his finish in the points in 2021.

Result of the second free practice: