Lewis Hamilton picked up where he left off in Friday morning's practice session at Istanbul Park, finishing as the fastest man at the end of the second 60-minute session.
Taking place in cloudy and overcast conditions, Hamilton set a time of 1:23.804 during his Soft tyre qualifying simulation run before switching to the Medium tyre for a race stint.
Unlike the morning session, Max Verstappen appeared far less happy with his car. Complaining about vibrations, he struggled with what appeared to be a tricky Red Bull to place in fifth at the end of the session. His best time on the Softs, set during his qualifying sim, was a 1:24.4 and 0.6s away from what Hamilton managed.
With Verstappen a subdued fifth, it was Ferrari's Charles Leclerc who was Hamilton's closest competitor. The Monegasque went quickest of all on the early Medium tyre runs, only eclipsed by Hamilton on the Soft tyre. Encouragingly for the Ferrari driver, his best time was set on his second flying lap as he had to abort the first one after running wide at Turn 9.
Leclerc's best time was 0.166s down on what Hamilton managed, but a quarter of a second clear of Valtteri Bottas. The second Mercedes driver finished 0.4s away from what his teammate managed during the Soft tyre runs.
Sergio Perez finished in fourth place, ending the day a position ahead of Verstappen and just under a tenth quicker.
Result Free practice 2 - Turkish
Lando Norris finished second practice in sixth place for McLaren, with Fernando Alonso seventh for Alpine, as the Spaniard was one of the drivers to have their best time deleted for exceeding track limits.
Esteban Ocon finished in eighth in the second Alpine, and had an issue right at the end of the session. Lining up on the grid to perform a practice start, he appeared to be unable to get the car into neutral before being told to switch the engine off. He was left stranded on the grid and raised his hand as a warning to other cars but, fortunately, didn't miss out on any practice time.
AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly finished in ninth after an uncomfortable session, in which the French driver complained about his arms being too short to reach the steering wheel – seemingly borne out by a late spin in the session. Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi completed the top 10.
Yuki Tsunoda was 11th for AlphaTauri, with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in 12th in the second Ferrari and spending most of the session on the Medium tyre.
Aston Martin's highest-placed finisher was Lance Stroll, in 13th, ahead of McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo. Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen was 15th after a drinks bottle issue in his nosecone led to the Finn shouting some irate messages at his team while they worked on fixing the problem.
Sebastian Vettel finished 16th in the other Aston Martin, ahead of the Williams duo of Nicholas Latifi and George Russell in 17th and 18th respectively.
Haas brought up the rear of the field, with Mick Schumacher in 19th and Nikita Mazepin in 20th, and 0.2s separating the duo.
Also interesting:
Video: Red Bull show off Honda tribute livery for Turkish GP
Check out the special livery that Red Bull will run for the Turkish Grand Prix, as a tribute to outgoing engine partner Honda.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and claim your chance to win!
SUBSCRIBE & WINMost read
In this article
F1 2021 Turkish Grand Prix RN365 News dossier
Join the conversation!