Red flag in the castle section: how Lindblad’s double hit stopped Azerbaijan’s FP2

Russell completes a perfect Thursday in Baku

If FP1 had already made clear that Mercedes arrived strong in Azerbaijan, FP2 confirmed it without any ambiguity. George Russell closed the second session of the day with a 1:43.347, nearly half a second clear of teammate Kimi Antonelli, who also showed a significant step forward on soft tyres to secure second place at 0.552s back. Max Verstappen completed the session’s virtual podium, though far from comfortable doing so, radioing complaints about his Red Bull’s rear axle lifting under braking, a sensation he described as having to “counter-steer the whole time.”

Behind them came Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in the two Ferraris, with Lando Norris rounding out the top six for McLaren, a team still dragging along the loose bargeboard issue first spotted in FP1 and, in this session, patched up temporarily with plastic cable ties. A fortunate enough fix that says a fair amount about how tight the margin for error is inside the McLaren garage this weekend.

Lindblad’s double hit that stopped everything

But if there’s one image that’s going to dominate the day’s highlight reels, it’s Arvid Lindblad climbing out of his Racing Bulls car after striking the wall not once, but twice, in Baku’s demanding castle section. With roughly 40 minutes left in the session, the young Briton clipped the barrier approaching Turn 9 and, mere seconds later, made contact again and came to a stop on track, in one of the tightest areas of the entire Baku circuit.

The situation forced Race Control to deploy the red flag while marshals worked to recover the car from a section where there’s essentially no margin for error. Lindblad climbed out under his own power and showed no signs of injury, but the impact was significant: according to Racing Bulls, the suspension, floor and gearbox will all need inspection before the true extent of the damage is known. Over team radio, the driver didn’t hide his frustration: “I’m really sorry… I think I literally clipped it by like a millimetre.”

What stands out is that this isn’t the first time it’s happened. The exact same scenario played out the previous weekend in Madrid, where Lindblad also ended FP2 against the barriers and needed a full chassis replacement. Two crashes in two consecutive weekends start to paint a pattern that Racing Bulls won’t be able to keep brushing off as simple bad luck.

Hamilton reprimanded for not yielding to Lawson

The afternoon’s other spicy moment came in the circuit’s fast section, between Turns 16 and 18. Lewis Hamilton was managing his Ferrari’s energy deployment when Liam Lawson came flying up behind him on a fast lap. Ferrari warned him twice over the radio that Lawson was closing in, but Hamilton stayed on the racing line instead of moving left, as required by the FIA’s traffic management instructions for that stretch. The result was that Lawson had to lift and brake slightly entering Turn 19 to avoid contact.

Lawson’s reaction over team radio left no doubt about how he felt in that moment: “So f***ing dangerous.” Stewards reviewed video footage, telemetry, team radio communications and onboard cameras before ruling that, while there was no intentional obstruction from Hamilton, a genuinely dangerous situation had been created given the speed of the corners involved and the specific instructions from Race Control. The penalty was a driving reprimand, with no grid drop attached, Hamilton’s second of the 2026 season.

More trouble: Bearman, Alonso and McLaren’s lingering issues

The session also put Oliver Bearman on the escape road after a sudden power unit failure. “My engine switched off and just… broke,” the Haas driver described over the radio, a message as brief as it was telling about what it feels like when the car simply stops responding mid lap. He managed to get it to a safe spot without further risk, but his session ended right there.

Fernando Alonso also couldn’t complete his planned program, with a suspected oil leak limiting his running in the Aston Martin. Between that and the news from Bearman and Lindblad, Baku’s FP2 ended up looking more like an endurance test against the cars themselves than a simple dress rehearsal for Friday’s qualifying.

What the full Thursday leaves in Baku

With both of the day’s sessions in the books, Mercedes stands out as the team to beat over a single lap, with Russell showing a pace that, if it holds, would put him in a commanding position for qualifying. But the day also left a long list of damage, scares and penalties complicating things for several teams ahead of Friday’s FP3: Racing Bulls with a chassis to inspect, Ferrari with a reprimanded driver, and Haas and Aston Martin dealing with mechanical issues still without a full explanation.

Baku, once again, showed exactly why it’s one of the most feared circuits on the calendar. Narrow, unforgiving, and capable of turning a session on its head out of nowhere.

AZERBAIJAN RESULTS – PRACTICE 2

KEY QUOTES

• “I’m constantly counter-steering because my rear axle is coming off the ground.” — Max Verstappen
• “I’m really sorry… I think I literally clipped it by like a millimetre.” — Arvid Lindblad
• “So f***ing dangerous.” — Liam Lawson, on team radio after the incident with Hamilton
• “My engine switched off and just… broke.” — Oliver Bearman

TRIVIA

• George Russell completed a full sweep of Thursday practice in Baku, topping both FP1 and FP2, a feat that puts Mercedes in a strong early position heading into Friday’s qualifying.
• Arvid Lindblad’s FP2 crash in Baku marks his second consecutive practice crash in as many race weekends, following a similar incident during Madrid’s Spanish Grand Prix weekend that required a full chassis replacement.
• The Baku castle section, where Lindblad crashed twice, is widely regarded as one of the tightest and most unforgiving parts of any circuit on the current F1 calendar, offering almost no runoff room.
• Lewis Hamilton’s reprimand for the Lawson incident was his second of the 2026 season, a reminder that reprimands accumulate toward race bans after a certain threshold.
• McLaren resorted to plastic cable ties to temporarily secure a loose bargeboard, the same issue that had already affected both cars in FP1 earlier that day.
• Oliver Bearman’s power unit failure came suddenly mid-lap, with no prior warning signs reported by the team before the engine cut out completely.

Russell’s pace looked ominous all Thursday, but Lindblad’s second wall-banging FP2 in as many weekends raises real questions about his run of luck in Racing Bulls machinery. Do you think this is just a rough patch for the rookie, or a pattern the team needs to address before it costs him a race seat?

Drop your take in the comments, and tell us if you think Mercedes can carry this pace into qualifying.

Sources: Formula1.com, RacingNews365, PlanetF1, GrandePrêmio, Motorsport Week, Yardbarker