Mercedes absolutely owned Free Practice 2 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and honestly, the gap to everyone else is looking properly scary. George Russell topped the session again after also leading FP1, with teammate Kimi Antonelli just half a second behind despite losing most of the morning to an engine failure. The damage was significant enough to warrant a full power unit change, but Antonelli managed to rejoin and salvage second place. It's the kind of statement Mercedes needed to make heading into qualifying.

More F1 news: Russell Leads Baku FP2 as Ferrari Struggles on the Straights

Max Verstappen was the first driver not in silver, but even then he was eight tenths down on Russell's pace. That's a massive chunk of time. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top five in the Ferraris, but they're both struggling more than a second adrift. Things aren't looking much cheerier for McLaren either, with Lando Norris in sixth and Oscar Piastri in eighth. Pierre Gasly squeezed into seventh for Alpine and proved the team's turnaround is legit after a shocker in FP1. Esteban Ocon also made the top ten in tenth place, which has to count as a decent day for the French outfit.

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It was a rough session for a few drivers. Isack Hadjar, the rookie making his F1 debut in Baku, got caught out at the Castle chicane and wrecked his right rear suspension, ending his session with just four laps completed. Oliver Bearman's afternoon got cut short when his Alpine suffered an engine cut-out right after rejoining following a red flag. Fernando Alonso had to retire as well, hampered by an oil leak. The Brit Arvid Lindblad's crash into the wall triggered the red flag in the first place, adding to what became a genuinely bumpy couple of hours out there.

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Sergio Perez managed a respectable 13th for Cadillac, though he's half a tenths short of cracking the top ten. Everything points to Mercedes having a genuine advantage this weekend in Baku, and the rest of the field's got some serious work to do if they want to challenge. Free Practice 3 rolls around Friday morning at 10:30 am French time, which should give teams a final chance to find some answers before qualifying kicks off.

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