(Motorsport) After a massively disappointing Monaco Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc showed some incredible pace at the Baku City Circuit as his Ferrari was faster than both the Red Bull cars in Final Practice 2 on Friday. In Practice One, Leclerc trailed Perez by a quarter of a second while Verstappen was a further tenth back in challenging and breezy conditions. Fernando Alonso capitalised on Carlos Sainz’s failure to complete his two final flying laps, coming fourth while the Ferrari driver finished fifth ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierra Gasly. 

Mercedes driver George Russell finished seventh while seven time World Champion Lewis Hamilton was a disappointing 12th, with the Silver Arrows appearing to struggle more than most on the track due to the porpoising issue. There were concerns about Verstappen’s rear wing which appeared to flex excessively in the opening hour of the practice session. Red Bull ultimately decided to mirror Verstappen’s car setup to Sergio Perez’s, which was not encountering the same issue. 

While the Dutch racing driver’s car was being worked on, Leclerc had already posted the fastest lap on the time chart, possibly aided by the slipstream he received from Nicholas Latifi during his lap. The Monegasque driver will be looking to get his first win in four races this time around and Ferrari will hope to have their strategy in place to avoid encountering similar issues to the Monaco Grand Prix. 

Also read: The story behind Ferrari's re emergence as Formula 1 title contenders