Verstappen leads FP2 from Sainz as Leclerc crashes

The Ferraris were the first to break into the 1m31s at the opening of the session, Carlos Sainz posting a 1m31.787s before he was shaded by Leclerc by three tenths in the initial runs.

This was still well over a second slower than George Russell’s benchmark from FP1, although Perez eventually brought the pace closer with his 1m30.757s, but this was eclipsed by Verstappen’s 1m30.146s.

Sainz posted a 1m30.128s, three thousandths of a second shy of Russell’s 1m30.125s from FP1, but Leclerc then broke the 90-second barrier with a 1m29.497s to vault to the top of the timing boards.

Verstappen got closer to the Monegasque, falling just a tenth shy on his next effort as he struggled with his headrest catching on his helmet, but another tilt pushed him to the top with a 1m29.380s.

That initial flurry of runs was primarily conducted on the medium tyre, and the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri raised the stakes on their opening laps on the soft rubber.

Norris punched in a 1m28.741s, which withstood a siege as the headline time for a fair portion of the soft-tyre runs, as Piastri was six tenths shy on his first effort.

Fernando Alonso and Sainz then took turns in the runner-up spot, but Norris was able to continue to defend top spot – particularly as a Leclerc lock-up denied him a chance to capitalise on a purple middle sector and wrest control of the session from Norris.

Verstappen then ended Norris’ run at the top with a 1m28.255s, logging the best sector two time, although Sainz came close to dispatching his former Toro Rosso team-mate – missing out by 0.06s.

The Dutchman raised the bar and clocked in a 1m27.930s, sitting on top as the session progressed into the long-run phases for the last 20 minutes of the session.

To the frustration of the engineers tasked with poring over the data, the long runs were interrupted 10 minutes from the end when Leclerc smeared his Ferrari into the wall at Turn 7, tattooing the track surface with skid marks as the rear wheels locked.

This precipitated a five-minute delay as Leclerc’s car was rescued, although the session ultimately resumed for a last-gasp attempt to collect long-run data.

Leclerc, who was handed a new gearbox prior to the session, ultimately remained third fastest behind Verstappen and Sainz. Baku winner Perez placed fourth, almost half a second behind his Red Bull team-mate at the close of the session.

Alonso was up to fifth having overcome Norris’ rapid first attempt on the soft tyres, as…