George Russell has stamped his authority on second practice in Baku, clocking the fastest time of the session and giving Mercedes a commanding start to the Azerbaijan weekend. The British driver's 1m43.347s effort put him clear at the top, with teammate Kimi Antonelli backing him up in second place just over half a tenth down. It's the sort of one-two performance that'll have the Silver Arrows feeling confident heading into Saturday's qualifying, though there's still plenty of running to come.

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Ferrari's looking a bit of a mess on the street circuit this time around. Charles Leclerc managed fourth place, but he's nearly a full second adrift of Russell, while Lewis Hamilton couldn't do much better than fifth, sitting even further back. According to the reports filtering through from the garage, the Scuderia's struggling with pace on the straights at Baku, which is hardly ideal when you're trying to set up for a track where DRS and top speed play a huge role. It's a proper headache for Fred Vasseur and the team as they chase their first win of the season.

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Max Verstappen's sitting third for Red Bull, closer to the pace than Ferrari but still not where you'd expect to see him, while Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have got McLaren in the mix at sixth and eighth respectively. Esteban Ocon appears to have settled in nicely at Haas in tenth place, meanwhile Pierre Gasly's getting through work for Alpine in seventh. The grid's shaping up to be pretty competitive come race day, with Mercedes looking the sharpest so far but plenty of time for others to dial things in.

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