Charles Leclerc tops the charts in FP2 despite ‘bent’ steering
13. 09. 2024
3 min

Charles Leclerc tops the charts in FP2 despite ‘bent’ steering

Tereza Hořínková
News.gp journalist and a girl with big dreams

Formula 1 charlesleclerc ferrari f1baku f1friday

Charles Leclerc leads the field in the second free practice in Baku, despite complaining about problems with the steering, due to repairs on his Ferrari, after a crash in FP1.

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After Leclerc’s and Colapinto’s separate collisions in FP1, their mechanics needed to work very hard, to get the Ferrari respectively Williams, ready for the second session.

Leclerc’s Ferrari was ready to go before the session so the Monagasque driver was able to jump into the session straight ahead. However, he reported problems with his steering and despite his engineer not seeing anything in the data, he insisted on coming back to the pits.

That was a good call as his mechanics had a bit more time to figure out the problem and Leclerc was later able to set the fastest lap with less than 15 minutes before the end of the session.

Franco Colapinto had to wait for his car a bit longer but he still managed to go out and collect some valuable data for the team during FP2. He got a bit lucky in Turn 8 as he gave a little ‘kiss’ to the wall there but avoided costing Williams more money.

The reigning champion Max Verstappen had also his moment in FP2 as he got lucky to stop his RB20 just before hitting the barries in Turn 3.

Verstappen’s biggest championship contender, Lando Norris, failed to set a good flying lap as he got impended by Pierre Gasly in the high-speed turns of the final sector. Gasly apologized to Norris as he reported issues with the battery and had no power to move out of the way at the time.

Carlos Sainz was also involved in a late impending incident with Sergio Perez, who complained of being held up during the high-speed run toward the braking zone at Turn 16.

George Russell set his lap late to the sessions as Mercedes carried out a power unit change for him. After that, he was called into the pits as some technical problems occurred for him as well. He still managed to stay in P9 till the end of FP2.

As already mentioned, Charles Lerclerc won the FP2, despite problems with the steering of his Ferrari.

Sergio Perez finished the session on the podium again but this time one place higher in P2 as he swapped places with Lewis Hamilton, who finished third.

Carlos Sainz secured fourth place for Ferrari, ahead of Oscar Piastri, while reigning world champion Max Verstappen finished sixth on track, with a more than half-a-second gap to his teammate Perez, who holds the most victories at this track.

Lance Stroll ended his day in seventh, followed by Nico Hulkenberg and George Russell. Oliver Bearman completed the top ten in his first FP2 in Formula 1.

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