The first free practice session provided an initial x-ray of the grid order for the 2022 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but there was still the second practice session in the afternoon, where the drivers modified their cars to try to reduce the effect of porpoising that both hurt in the morning.
It seems that in the Ferrari garage they found the best solution, since they took first position thanks to the lap of Charles Leclerc, a 1:43.224 that served to respond to Red Bull after they dominated in Free Practice 1.
However, those from Milton Keynes were not far behind, with Sergio Pérez in second place, just over two tenths behind the Monegasque, and beating his partner, the current world champion, Max Verstappen, who could not go further beyond third place with the soft tires.
Although if we talk about surprises, we must mention Fernando Alonso, who recorded a lap that put him as the best of the rest, even beating his compatriot, Carlos Sainz, who only managed to be fifth after an error on his thrown lap with the tires reds.
Behind, Pierre Gasly showed a good pace with the AlphaTauri, something that was endorsed with the eighth position of Yuki Tsunoda, and that is that the Faenza single-seaters slipped between the Mercedes of George Russell, seventh to more than one second and three tenths from the Leclerc record.
Closing the time table of the top ten were Esteban Ocon, who with his Alpine was four tenths behind the other French car, Alonso’s, and Lando Norris, who was tenth with his McLaren.
FP2 Results, Free Practice 2 of the Azerbaijan GP 2022 F1
(Click on ‘see results’ to enjoy the entire table)
| Cla | Pilot | laps | Weather | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Charles Leclerc |
 |
24 | 1’43.224 | |
| two |  Sergio Perez |
 |
22 | 1,43,472 | 0.248 |
| 3 |  Max Verstappen |
 |
18 | 1’43.580 | 0.356 |
| 4 |  Fernando Alonso |
 |
22 | 1’44.142 | 0.918 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz Jr. |
 |
25 | 1,44,274 | 1,050 |
| 6 |  Pierre Gasly |
 |
26 | 1’44.315 | 1,091 |
| 7 |  George Russell |
 |
26 | 1’44.548 | 1.324 |
| 8 |  Yuki Tsunoda |
 |
twenty four | 1’44.567 | 1.343 |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon |
 |
24 | 1’44.609 | 1.385 |
| 10 | Lando Norris |
 |
23 | 1’44.771 | 1.547 |
| see results | |||||
Summary of Free Practice 2 of the Azerbaijan GP 2022 Formula 1
After a hectic session in which the drivers tested the conditions of the Baku track with these new generation cars from the 2022 season, the teams made the necessary changes to the configuration of the cars to reduce the effect of porpoising .
This high-speed bounce down the straights was a headache for everyone, and it’s only proven by the fact that two minutes after the second free practice started, everyone but the two Red Bulls were on the asphalt.
Carlos Sainz was the first out of the pit lane, but he was not alone, as Esteban Ocon followed closely behind, although preparations in the Milton Keynes garage were going a long way. The mechanics of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez worked on the rear wing while both put on their helmets, also keeping an eye on Ferrari’s laps, which quickly put their Spanish driver in the lead.
The man from Madrid did a 1:46.705 with the medium tire to get to the top of the classification, although these times would not be very significant, since the classification would be held on Saturday 3 hours before the start of this session. As minutes were subtracted from the stopwatch, the records went down, but not in the case of Lando Norris, who went long in one of the runaways and had to make up to three maneuvers to get out of there.
The porpoising made a dent in all the cars, especially Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, although that did not prevent him from taking the lead, before Sainz beat him by more than a second with a 1:45.118 , which was the best lap of the end week so far.
The slipstreams gave and took away in these first ten minutes, and it is something that both Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso took advantage of, who placed themselves ahead of the Spaniard’s Ferrari, with the Monegasque going down to 1:43.806 with medium tires. As the session progressed, the natural order was stabilising, but there was concern about Hamilton’s lap, nearly two and a half seconds off Ferrari’s best, combined with George Russell even trailing his teammate.
After the first quarter of an hour , Max Verstappen marked his first lap, one and a half seconds behind Leclerc, at the same time that Sainz improved to move up to second position, four tenths behind the other Ferrari, and dropping Sergio Pérez to third place , just ahead of Alonso.
The Italians were testing a few things on their rear wing as they sprayed a lot of paraffin on the Monegasque’s car, which was enjoying a huge lead over the rest of the grid at the time.
After the first 25 minutes of these second free practices, the drivers were preparing to go back out on the track, as many entered to change the medium compounds with which they made their turns. No one opted for the soft at the start, but Sebastian Vettel, with a protesting helmet against climate change, premiered the color red on the tires to place seventh, although he was not the fastest in this first attempt with the fastest compound, since George Russell was able to seven tenths of the leaders.
However, Fernando Alonso beat the Englishman from Mercedes, and set the best time so far on the softs at the halfway point of the session, but still well behind the two single-seaters from Ferrari and Red Bull, the latter facing repairs in the garage.
When the first half hour of the afternoon free practice fell on the streets of Baku, Charles Leclerc broke the clock again, this time, with the soft games setting the record for the sectors after two preparation laps to set a 1:43.224 . His teammate, Sainz, was on track to take second, but lost steam in the last section, keeping his previous record with the media.
Fernando Alonso seemed to want to join the fight to be the best of the rest, and with his Alpine he placed fourth with 25 minutes to see the checkered flag, even faster than his compatriot with the Ferrari, but at this moment the turn of the Red Bull tries. Although we had not yet seen any strong touch, Alex Albon collided quite violently with the apex of turn 17, leaving his Williams touched in the box, something that forced him to get out of his car so that the mechanics could repair the suspension .
Returning to the fast laps of the Milton Keynes cars, Sergio Pérez repeated what Lewis Hamilton did at the start of the 2021 race, going wide in the first corner, although without major problems, returning to the track with a spin. With just over 20 minutes to go, Leclerc had a similar mishap, albeit before the castle section, reversing to get back on the circuit.
On the second attempt , the Mexican made a mistake again, this time shortly before facing the final part of the urban track, thus ruining Verstappen’s time, who ran into a yellow flag that made him loosen up.
The last moments of the session were used to make long runs, although, in principle, they would not be very significant due to the start time of the race. No one exceeded 20 laps , but it is not very worrying because this is a very long track, the third longest on the entire calendar, only behind Spa-Francorchamps and Jeddah.
However, fear gripped the Ferrari garage after Charles Leclerc informed his engineers that he had noticed a loss of power, although they quickly calmed down after seeing the data and assuring their driver to put the “race mode” .
Gallery: the best photos from the second free practice session of the Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP 2022
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo de: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
