Lewis Hamilton was both relieved and grateful for his Ferrari team after he topped second practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri showed their typical dominance in the first session on Friday, but they both hit the walls of the street circuit in the second. 

Ferrari used that opportunity to send out a statement as Hamilton and Charles Leclerc led the way in the second session, with just 0.074 seconds separating the Scuderia pair.

Hamilton is yet to finish on the podium since his move to Ferrari, though he did win the sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix, but showed promise last weekend in Monza, when he made up four places to finish the race in sixth.

And now, after leading the way in second practice in Baku, the seven-time world champion is glad to see some progression.

"This is a circuit where you have to have mega confidence on the brakes and I have some problems on the brakes," Hamilton said.

"And then we made some changes going into P2 and the brakes were finally working perfectly.

"So really happy to see the progress, and it just goes to show the direction we have been going as a team.

"Really grateful for everyone's patience and everyone pushing so hard because we are really starting to see the progress coming through."

An encouraging session brings Friday to a close  pic.twitter.com/StoIDk5HaG

— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) September 19, 2025

Leclerc usually puts on a strong showing in Azerbaijan, taking pole position at the track in each of the last four years.

If he achieves pole again on Saturday, he could become the fourth driver to start at the front of the grid in five consecutive stagings of a grand prix, after Ayrton Senna (seven in San Marino), Hamilton (six in Australia) and Michael Schumacher (five in Japan and Spain). 

However, Leclerc expects the McLaren drivers to bounce back to their usual form during the weekend.

"I didn't do a great job today but overall we seem pretty strong so it's good," he said.

"But - and there's a big but - it looks like McLaren are in another world and I think we will all be very surprised tomorrow, because Lando didn't finish some laps that were very, very impressive.

"So I doubt we will be in the fight with them but compared to the others it seems we are kind of in a good place.

"But never say never. In 2021, and many qualifyings here, it wasn't possible but in the end we kind of made it so in the end I will keep my hopes high. But it looks unlikely."