Piastri missed some running in the first session when his car suffered an engine problem on his first lap out of the pits. A 20-minute red-flag period to repair a damaged kerb limited the impact of that on the Australian.
“A bit tricky,” Piastri said. “A bit up and down. The pace is there, just not the easiest to get the most out of it. We tried a few things in P2. We will look back and see what we can change for tomorrow. It is going to be different with tyre choices and stuff like that.”
Piastri was referencing the decision by tyre supplier Pirelli to take its three softest compounds to this weekend for only the third time this year. At both previous races when this has been the case, the pace difference between the soft and medium tyres has been marginal.
Norris said: “The track’s very different to last year and it’s a softer compound we don’t use that often – Monaco, Imola. I am behind on the learnings.
“A scrappy session from my side and Oscar’s side. He seemed to be struggling a little bit with the car as well, we will see what we can make up tomorrow.
“Ferrari were easily the quickest here last year even though Oscar won. Ferrari will be quick. Red Bull are going to be quick. They are never good on Friday. They go to sleep and then they wake up and they are quick again.”
Hamilton benefited from a slipstream from Leclerc at the start of his lap to beat his team-mate by 0.074 seconds.
The seven-time champion told his engineer there were “some good learnings there”, an apparent reference to the benefit of the tow, and Ferrari are considering employing it to gain grid positions in qualifying on Saturday.
Leclerc has been on pole position for the last four races in Baku, where his excellence on street circuits and in qualifying is at its most pronounced.
McLaren’s raw pace was not seen because of the errors made by both drivers on what should have been their fastest laps.
But on the longer, race-simulation runs later in the session, Piastri was fast, so the championship leaders can be expected to remain the team to beat over the weekend.
