The Ferrari drivers lead the pack in FP2 in Baku. Vasseur preaches calm: “Let’s stay focused.”

In Baku over the last four years, Charles Leclerc has started from pole position five times: four times in the Grand Prix and one extra pole in 2023 for Saturday’s Sprint Race. The Monegasque driver himself tried to explain this record at the start of the race weekend in Azerbaijan: “I always feel comfortable on city circuits, but there’s something extra here. This is a track that suits my driving style.” Leclerc is always in top form in Baku, pushing the limits in every race, as he demonstrated in the first two free practice sessions: third behind McLaren in FP1 and second in FP2. Ahead of him in the second session of the day was his teammate, by just 74 thousandths of a second.

Lewis Hamilton returned to the track after the end of the European races with renewed strength, ready to fight to end his debut season at Ferrari on a high note compared to what we saw at the start of the championship. Hamilton is still missing a podium finish in red, and finishing in the top three in a Grand Prix before the end of the year is almost a must for him, having managed to finish on the podium in every season since his debut in 2007. A fresh start in Baku, where Ferrari immediately appeared to be in great shape, seems possible, but the Maranello team does not want to get its hopes up after Friday’s good results: “I am certainly happy with the first day,” explained French team principal Fred Vasseur, “but dreaming is never a good thing, and we must not think that everything will be easy. We don’t know what fuel loads our opponents were running with, and we haven’t seen the real potential of the others. We must always try to chase the last thousandth of a second and take nothing for granted.” A call for calm and a reminder of reality, which is also echoed by the Rossa drivers: Leclerc himself has never managed to convert his pole positions in Baku into victories in the last four years. Today, the Monegasque will try to work his magic again in the flying lap, and after Friday’s excellent results, Lewis will also try to do something special: the seven-time world champion finished FP2 with a time of 1:41.293, beating Leclerc’s pole time from last year by 72 thousandths of a second and improving on the Monegasque’s result from Saturday in 2024.

The others—  La Rossa worked on different strategies to extract more data from the two drivers’ free practice sessions, both in terms of tire choice for the long run and wing load, in order to arrive at today’s session with more answers on the track: “On high-load circuits, you know the setup perfectly, but when you explore low loads, you have to correct the data,” said Vasseur. We did a cross-test with the two cars to understand which setup is best and then make a decision.” What Ferrari does not know, however, is the extent of the work done by the other teams, particularly McLaren, which, after dominating FP1, disappeared into the rear in the second session with Lando Norris tenth, also crashing in FP2, and Oscar Piastri twelfth. The papaya team, which could already win the Constructors’ title this weekend, did not seem concerned by a chaotic Friday on the corners of Baku, a track that has always been full of contradictions and unexpected events. Today, the British team will reveal its cards, and it will be up to Ferrari to prove that the first free practice session was not just a magical illusion. “Our opponents look very strong and I expect some surprises in qualifying,” said Leclerc. “Anything can happen on this track, but we will fight for a good position on the starting grid.” A hope shared by Hamilton: “We are going in the right direction.” A certainty for the Briton, among many questions, as he waits to find out what other contradictions Baku will bring.