After teammate and Max Verstappen led the way in the opening session, it was Perez’s turn to set the pace in FP2 as he edged out the new championship leader by 0.101s around the Baku City Circuit. It was a difficult afternoon for reigning world champions Mercedes, with neither Lewis Hamilton or Valtteri Bottas featuring inside the top 10 as both drivers struggled with tyre warm-up issues. Having been unable to set a competitive lap time on the Soft tyres, Hamilton ended up a lowly 11th, over a second down on Perez’s benchmark. Things were even worse for teammate Bottas, who took a pair of trips down the Turn 1 escape road on his way to finishing two seconds off the pace in 16th. In...
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