Russell leads Mercedes 1-2 as red flag halts FP2 action in Baku

Topping the timesheets

George Russell made it a Thursday practice clean sweep at the Baku City Circuit, having topped the times in both FP1 and FP2, working his way down to a time of 1m 43.347s with a series of runs on Pirelli's soft compound tyre. ^[1] Russell topped FP2 by 0.552s from team-mate Kimi Antonelli. ^[2]

Verstappen slotted into third place, 0.827s down on Russell as Mercedes dominated, with every other driver, including Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton over a second down on Mercedes. ^[3]

Top ten classification

1. George Russell (Mercedes) 1m43.347s; 2. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.552s; 3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.827s; 4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +1.126s; 5. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +1.318s; 6. Lando Norris (McLaren) +1.484s; 7. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1.496s; 8. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +1.510s; 9. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +1.521s; 10. Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.943s.

^[4]

The race-pace picture

Incidents and red flag

The red flag came out after 20 minutes for a crash by Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad, who tagged the protruding Turn 9 wall at the narrow castle section, part of the UNESCO heritage site the circuit loops around. ^[5] He had lost control of his car at Turn 8 – the notoriously narrowest section of the Formula 1 circuit (just 7.6 metres wide) – and had made several nasty contacts with the barriers in the tight Burg passage. Lindblad was able to get out unharmed, but his car was billowing thick smoke from the brakes – and was positioned so awkwardly that the session had to be interrupted for a good ten minutes to remove the car and clear up debris.

In Oliver Bearman's case the second half of FP2 was short-lived, with the Haas driver reporting a power unit failure coming out of the pits.

Bearman managed to park his car at the end of an escape road and make the marshals' job easier.

Alongside the on-track issues for Lindblad and Bearman, there was more trouble for Aston Martin and Honda as Fernando Alonso only managed nine laps before being consigned to the garage with a suspected oil leak in the power unit.

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