Azerbaijan GP: Charles Leclerc fastest practice session despite accident

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc beat Red Bull driver Sergio Perez by just 0.006 seconds in Friday practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Leclerc's time was set late in the session, when the track would have been faster than for some of his rivals after a difficult day that included an accident in the first session.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was third fastest, 0.066 seconds behind Perez, ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

McLaren's Lando Norris, Verstappen's closest rival in the championship, was 14th fastest after being held up by Pierre Gasly's Alpine on what would have been his fastest lap.

Leclerc went into the weekend as the favourite for pole position after qualifying in the top positions in Baku for three years in a row.

But he crashed his Ferrari halfway through the first session, and although the car was back in action in time for the start of the second hour, Leclerc was quick to complain that something was wrong.

Ferrari told him they couldn't see anything in the telemetry data. However, he said the car felt “not straight” and he had to come into the pits. “It's impossible that you can't see that in the data.”

As a result, he was no longer in sync with the other drivers and was able to complete his qualifying simulation run on the soft tires later than his rivals, which is theoretically an advantage.

Red Bull looks much more competitive than two weeks ago in Monza. But Verstappen, who set the pace in the first practice session, was not so lucky in the second.

He complained of understeer – a lack of grip on the front axle – as he has in many races recently. He also had both a near-collision with the wall after misjudging turn five and a slide on the passing road at turn three.

The Dutchman, who is 62 points ahead of Norris with eight races left, finished 0.545 seconds behind.

Norris seemed to be on course for a time that would have allowed him to challenge Perez at the front until he was blocked by Gasly in the corners of the pit lane and had to back off.

In terms of race pace, the McLaren in Piastri's hands seemed to have a slight edge over Perez's Red Bull.

George Russell also had a difficult session. He had to leave the race late after Mercedes discovered an engine problem and was called back into the pits shortly before the end due to another, unspecified problem. He finished the race in ninth place.

Oliver Bearman, who replaced the suspended Kevin Magnussen at Haas, was tenth, two places and 0.072 seconds behind his teammate Nico Hülkenberg.