George Russell capped off the Thursday in Baku by topping the second practice session for the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. However, behind the Mercedes driver’s blistering pace, FP2 proved to be a chaotic, incident-filled hour defined by wall strikes, red flags, and power unit anxieties across the grid.
As the sun began to set over the City of Winds, George Russell doubled down on Thursday at the Baku City Circuit, pacing FP2 with a commanding 1:43.347 to lead teammate Kimi Antonelli in a Silver Arrows 1-2. Antonelli recovered impressively to P2 despite sitting out the start of the session following an FP1 breakdown. The Mercedes package appeared the most balanced across all three sectors of the track, managing energy deployment efficiently to maximise top speed down the 2.2 km main straight, the longest on the F1 calendar.
Max Verstappen placed his Red Bull third, while Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top five for Ferrari and Mercedes.
Compared to the morning’s FP1, the field logged considerably more track time, though disruptions remained a constant feature. While several drivers were forced into the run-off areas, triggering periodic yellow flags, Arvid Lindblad was less fortunate on his first F1 weekend around this tricky street circuit. The Racing Bulls rookie clipped the wall on the climb through Turns 8 and 9, breaking his right-front suspension and triggering the first red flag of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Lindblad took no further part in the session and ended in P18.
The stoppage was short-lived, but the drama was far from over. Just as the session restarted, Oliver Bearman’s Haas power unit gave up, leaving the Briton stranded in P20 and adding to a growing list of reliability headaches across the paddock.
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