Azerbaijan GP: Hamilton tops FP2 as Norris hits the wall, Piastri under investigation

Lewis Hamilton headed a Ferrari one-two at the end of Free Practice 2 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. It was a session which produced further drama.

Lando Norris saw his session cut short after a heavy whack of the wall at Turn 4. Teammate Oscar Piastri carried on after his date with the barrier, but was placed under FIA investigation for a potential yellow flag infringement.

Lewis Hamilton sets the Azerbaijan GP FP2 pace

After the significant disruption caused to the FP1 running by kerb issues at the final turn, a busy second hour of practice lay ahead.

From the start, we had a mixture of soft and medium tyre runners, with Alex Albon in the Williams opting for hards.

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Championship leader Piastri was on the softs, and set a 1:43.307 as the opening time to chase. Piastri suffered power unit issues in FP1, but the lengthy red flag period meant he missed very little run time relevant to his peers.

Liam Lawson failed to negotiate Turn 15 on his first push lap, taking to the run-off, as did Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari.

Piastri was rapidly shuffled down the order as the pace ramped up, Norris going P1, just eight-thousandths up on Hamilton’s Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, while Oliver Bearman was wise to bail out of taking the extremely tight Turn 8 after a lock-up. That’s a uniquely tight corner which Leclerc is all too familiar with.

Leclerc was on softs, while Hamilton had mediums in an intriguing Ferrari split. Leclerc would go fastest, a tenth-and-a-half up on Hamilton. But, Hamilton did not get the ideal multi-car tow down that monster straight which Leclerc enjoyed.

Norris had gone purple in Sector 2 of his lap, but peeled off into the pit lane.

Hamilton continued to fly the flag for medium tyres, clearing Leclerc by a quarter of a second, as that interesting tyre compound comparison continued to develop. At this stage, the mediums looked a solid one-lap option.

Leclerc was pushing hard, which led to a whack of the wall at Turn 4. No harm done, as thankfully was the case for Lance Stroll, who struck the T15 wall with his Aston Martin.

As the session reached halfway, it back was to the pits for all 20 drivers ahead of part two.

Norris’ part two started terribly with a big rear slide into the T4 wall. Unlike Leclerc’s incident, damage was done for Norris. With a wrecked suspension, Norris limped back to the pits, covered by the yellow flags.

Minutes later, Piastri whacked the T15 Tecpro barrier. Fortunately, a badly scuffed tyre was the extent of the damage.

No such dramas for Ferrari as Hamilton migrated to soft tyres. A nice tow from the Alpine was a welcomed treat, but he still had 0.176s to find on Leclerc after that lap.

Russell was looking to mount a challenge against the Ferraris, but slipping and sliding his way towards the wall, that was lap over and a return to the pit lane.

With Russell back in the garage, Hamilton improved. It was enough to boot Leclerc out of top spot, the new gap 0.074s in Hamilton’s favour.

Bearman was taking his frustrations out on his brakes (verbally) after Turn 8: Part 2. Again, the run-off was required. Piastri meanwhile, it was announced, would be investigated post-session for a yellow flag infringement.

As the chequered flag emerged, Hamilton’s P1 was confirmed. Leclerc completed a Ferrari one-two ahead of Mercedes duo George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

See the full Azerbaijan GP FP2 results here.

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