Russell creates huge Baku gap as Hamilton faces stewards after dangerous close call

The opening 20 minutes belonged to Max Verstappen, who went fastest by just 0.045s ahead of George Russell on the same medium tyres. The Dutchman was also more than half a second clear of the rest of the field before Arvid Lindblad brought out the first red flag of FP2 after crashing in the Castle section. The Racing Bulls driver was unable to continue and had to leave his damaged car behind.

When the session resumed, Oliver Bearman was also forced to call it a day early after suffering a power unit issue at the same point on the track. The Haas driver had to pull over and leave his car behind, bringing his FP2 session to an early end. This time, however, a yellow flag was enough to deal with the incident as the car was safely positioned in the run-off area.

With around 20 minutes remaining, Russell set a truly impressive 1:43.759 to go fastest. The Mercedes driver was almost half a second clear of Verstappen and close to a full second ahead of the rest of the field, including his own team-mate.

Shortly afterwards, Russell found another chunk of time with a 1:43.347, taking another four tenths off his already leading benchmark and extending his advantage to a huge eight tenths over the next-fastest driver.

The session also saw Lewis Hamilton come under investigation at the end of FP2 for an alleged impeding incident involving Liam Lawson on the long straight. The Racing Bulls driver was approaching at high speed through the fastest part of the circuit where speeds exceed 300 km/h when he came dangerously close to Hamilton's SF-26.

The seven-time world champion appeared not to have spotted the car behind him in time which led to a misunderstanding and a major scare for Lawson.

"Oh my God, that is so f**king dangerous," Lawson exclaimed over the team radio immediately after the incident. Hamilton will now face the stewards who will assess whether the Mercedes driver was at fault for impeding the New Zealander.

Antonelli eventually tried to match his team-mate's pace and finished the session in second place, but ended up more than half a second off Russell's benchmark. Verstappen completed the top three, with the Red Bull driver a full eight tenths off the pace.