<\/p>\n
\nLewis Hamilton
\nPhoto: photosport\n<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton led a Ferrari one-two at Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix while McLaren title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri hit the wall and New Zealander Liam Lawson placed in the top 10.<\/p>\n
Seven-times world champion Hamilton, yet to stand on the Formula 1 podium since he joined the Italian team in January, lapped the Baku street circuit in one minute 41.293 seconds in the second session.<\/p>\n
Leclerc, on pole position in Baku for the past four seasons without once winning the race, was 0.074 slower.<\/p>\n
McLaren had finished one-two in the red-flagged first session, with Norris ahead of championship leader Piastri while Hamilton clipped the barriers, suffered a puncture and damaged his car’s front wing.<\/p>\n
“I would say P1 (first practice) was a bit of a mess,” said Hamilton of a session that was halted for some 25 minutes to repair kerb damage.<\/p>\n
“This is a circuit where you have to have mega confidence on the brakes and I had some problems with the brakes.<\/p>\n
“We made some changes going into P2 and the brakes finally were working perfect and I was able to really make some big advantage in terms of gaining on the brakes.<\/p>\n
“Really happy to see the progress… we’re really starting to see the progress come through.”<\/p>\n
Tough time for McLaren<\/p>\n
The McLaren drivers had a tougher time in practice two with Norris losing control at turn four and smashing his car’s rear suspension.<\/p>\n
“A costly one, especially here,” said Norris of a mistake that cost him track time and had him nursing the stricken car back to the pits. “It was feeling good until then.<\/p>\n
“I’m behind on the learnings now, a scrappy session from both my side and Oscar’s side, he seemed to be struggling a bit with the car as well.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nLando Norris and Oscar Piastri of McLaren.
\nPhoto: PHOTOSPORT\n<\/p>\n
Piastri, last year’s winner in Baku, suffered a power unit problem in first practice and then had his own brush with the wall – without damage – to finish 12th on the timesheets.<\/p>\n
“A bit tricky,” said the Australian.<\/p>\n
“I think the pace is there, it’s just not the easiest to get the most out of it at the moment, so that’s probably just the main thing.”<\/p>\n
Piastri is 31 points clear of Norris with eight rounds remaining and while that battle is set to run, McLaren can clinch the constructors’ title for the second year in a row on Sunday and with a record seven races to spare.<\/p>\n
Mercedes’ George Russell, who was unwell on Thursday and missed the scheduled media day, completed the top three in practice two but 0.477 off Hamilton’s time. Teammate Kimi Antonelli was fourth.<\/p>\n
Lawson impressive<\/p>\n
Racing Bulls’ Lawson produced two top-10 finishes, following his ninth in the opening session with seventh, nearly two seconds faster.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nNew Zealand driver Liam Lawson.
\nPhoto: photosport\n<\/p>\n
It was first time on the tricky circuit as a Formula 1 driver, having raced there in Formula Two three years ago.<\/p>\n
“It’s very different to what I remember here from Formula 2,” Lawson said.<\/p>\n
“But I think they did a good job at cleaning the track. It’s started quite grippy, we’re doing qualifying times, nearly. Maybe even faster, which helps a lot.<\/p>\n
“Monza was difficult for us, but not a true representation of pace. We just had a tough weekend, but had everything gone well, we should have been in the top 10.<\/p>\n
“We’re pushing for that, and the car’s been very consistent recently. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be [in the top 10], we just have to keep chasing it with everyone else.”<\/p>\n
– Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton Photo: photosport Lewis Hamilton led a Ferrari one-two at Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix while McLaren…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-32150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}