George Russell completed an impressive practice double as he outpaced title-leading team-mate Kimi Antonelli in a dominant start to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend. Mercedes' Russell built on the form that had seen him top the day's earlier first practice session to stay at the head of the timesheet, this time finishing with a half-second advantage around the challenging streets of Baku. Antonelli, who leads Russell by 81 points in the chase for 2026's Drivers' Championship, experienced a compromised Thursday owing to the hydraulic leak that stopped his car midway through the opening session.

The Italian returned to the track with just over 30 minutes of the second session left, after an engine change, and worked his way up to second on the timesheet, eventually finishing 0.552s behind Russell. Max Verstappen took third to end a promising opening day in an upgraded Red Bull car, although his deficit to the front was 0.8s.