Azerbaijan GP FP2: Russell Fastest, Hamilton Faces Investigation Over Lawson Incident

George Russell had the fastest car on track in Baku on Thursday. Lewis Hamilton had the slowest reaction time, and it might cost him more than a bruised ego. While Russell was busy putting eight tenths into Max Verstappen, Hamilton was busy getting himself noted for impeding Liam Lawson, the kind of moment that puts a driver on the stewards’ radar.

Russell Runs Away With It

Let’s deal with the bit that actually matters on the timesheet first. George Russell set a 1:43.347 to top FP2 comfortably, half a second clear of teammate Kimi Antonelli in a Mercedes one-two that will have done nothing to calm nerves in Maranello or Milton Keynes. Verstappen was third for Red Bull, eight tenths off Russell’s best, with Charles Leclerc and Hamilton rounding out the top five for Ferrari.

Russell traded blows with Verstappen and Norris through the middle of the session before pulling clear after the red flag. It was the sort of lap Russell needed, even if he sits 81 points behind Antonelli in the standings with the season’s business end approaching. Antonelli, for his part, had to build his way back into the session after missing the start entirely, his mechanics working through a power unit change following the hydraulic failure that ended his FP1 early. He still managed to slot in second, which tells you plenty about how quickly Mercedes can turn a car around when the pressure is on.

Hamilton’s Slow Lap, Lawson’s Fast Fright

The story that will follow Hamilton out of Baku, though, has nothing to do with lap times. Liam Lawson found himself catching Hamilton at a point in the session where the Ferrari was, by all accounts, not moving with any great urgency, and the Racing Bulls driver was not shy about saying so on team radio.

“Oh my god, that is so dangerous.” – Liam Lawson

Hamilton was subsequently noted by the FIA for impeding, which in stewards’ language usually means someone is about to spend part of their evening explaining themselves rather than reviewing data. It is not a good look for a driver whose season has already been defined by more chaos than a seven-time champion should have to put up with. Hamilton’s title defence has been a mess of retirements and mechanical gremlins rather than outright pace problems, and getting hauled in front of the stewards for a slow-moving blunder in practice is the kind of unforced error Ferrari really does not need right now.

Whether the stewards decide this was a genuine oversight or something that deserves a reprimand is a separate question, but the optics are unhelpful. Ferrari sits second in the constructors’ standings, well behind Mercedes but ahead of McLaren, and every avoidable headache adds up when a team is already fighting on so many fronts.

A Session Full of Near Misses

Hamilton was not the only name generating drama. FP2 had already been stopped once before that, after Arvid Lindblad clipped the wall at Turn 8, bounced off it, and hit it again. Lindblad was contrite over the radio, telling Racing Bulls he was “really sorry” for clipping the wall by what he reckoned was a millimetre, before Race Control called a red flag and sent the session into a scramble as every car queued to get back out once track action resumed.

Oliver Bearman’s session ended almost as soon as it began, his Haas coasting into the Turn 2 run-off area after what he described simply as an engine that “just broke.” Franco Colapinto also found the same run-off area earlier in the session, though without the same drama. Verstappen locked up heavily and ran straight on at Turn 1 at one point too, a reminder that even the sport’s most decorated operators are not immune to Baku’s habit of punishing the smallest miscalculation.

Isack Hadjar, back in the Red Bull family car after swapping seats with Lawson for this weekend, had his own reason to be relieved. His RB22 was fitted with a new gearbox during the break between sessions and was ready to run, a small mercy after Hadjar’s FP1 was cut short by an engine failure. He ended FP2 ninth, a solid return given the morning’s troubles.

Aston Martin Left Behind

If Ferrari’s afternoon was overshadowed by a stewards’ letter, Aston Martin’s was simply overshadowed by pace, or the lack of it. Lance Stroll ended the session 21st on the timesheet, while Fernando Alonso managed only nine laps after what the team suspected was an oil leak, finishing four tenths slower than his already struggling teammate. It capped a grim session for a team second from bottom in the constructors’ table, and there is little sign of relief on the horizon.

Full FP2 Classification