The Bahrain Grand Prix victor didn’t participate within the ultimate quarter-hour of the second hour-long session after he broken the front-left observe rod on his F1-75 challenger.
He clipped the within wall passing via Flip 4 and needed to abort the Flip 5 sweeping proper hander earlier than cruising again to the pitlane for repairs.
However that solely got here after his mushy tyre run to wrest again the FP2 lead from Verstappen, Leclerc finally pipping the Dutch racer by 0.14s because of a 1m30.074s flier.
Instantly previous to second observe, drivers and crew principals had been referred to as to a gathering with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and motorsport director Ross Brawn.
This was held following the missile assault on the close by Aramco distribution station throughout FP1, for which Yemeni insurgent group Houthi has claimed accountability.
That is reckoned to be the identical organisation whose missiles had been intercepted near the 2021 Method E season opener in Diriyah.
As a consequence of the assembly, the beginning of FP2 was delayed by quarter-hour to twenty:15 native time with solely Sainz and Valtteri Bottas initially filmed prepared within the storage.
It was Alfa Romeo driver Bottas and his rookie teammate Zhou Guanyu that hit the Jeddah Corniche road circuit first to guide a flurry of automobiles and go away solely the Purple Bulls within the pits.
Bottas was instantly on the tempo, choosing up from his third place in first observe, by setting an preliminary 1m31.802s banker on the favored C3 medium tyres.
Esteban Ocon was subsequent over the road aboard the Alpine however was 0.7s adrift as Zhou ran one other 1.7s slower than his stablemate earlier than the Ferraris got here to the fore.
Sainz additionally used the yellow-walled Pirelli tyre to bolt to the highest of the chief board together with his first effort buzzing the timing line at 1m31.382s to run 4 tenths clear.
However he was quickly after deposed by stablemate Leclerc, because the factors chief was the primary driver to dip into the 1m30s.
Leclerc’s 1m30.216s lap on the C3s 4 minutes into the session gave him 1.1s in hand, regardless of preliminary oversteer as Sainz complained about porpoising rearing its head.
Leclerc then turned in two extremely constant comply with ups, lapping inside 0.15s of his private finest as he topped all three sectors.
It was not till six minutes in that the Purple Bull lastly joined the session on C3s, leaving Alexander Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Mick Schumacher and Fernando Alonso as the one drivers to ply their commerce on the tougher C2 compound.
The instances remained steady for practically the subsequent quarter of an hour earlier than Verstappen stretched the legs of his RB18 to eclipse Leclerc by simply two thousandths.
After his first effort positioned him 1.074s off Leclerc, the defending champion clocked a 1m30.214s to run quickest earlier than the sector swapped to the quickest out there C4 tyre.
Leclerc was capable of regain first place as he introduced the benchmark all the way down to 1m30.074s to search out 0.14s over his Purple Bull rival, additionally beating his personal FP1 benchmark of 1m30.772s by seven tenths.
However the tempo leap on the theoretically quicker tyre was lower than anticipated.
Lewis Hamilton was the opposite main climber as he rose from 14th as much as fifth, behind Sergio Perez, however forward of his Mercedes counterpart George Russell.
The seven-time champion delivered a 1m30.513s, having stopped early within the session to swap to his spare seat to take a seat increased within the automobile.
However then run plans had been interrupted by a short digital security automobile because of the Haas of Magnussen stopping with an influence unit situation midway around the lap to be recovered.
That ended a troublesome Friday for the Dane, who landed fifth in Bahrain.
He had complained of an engine downside earlier within the session earlier than getting the all-clear from the crew to push, having not set a time in FP1 owing to a hydraulic leak.
Sainz introduced the opposite noteworthy incident when he too clipped the wall, the Spaniard letting his automobile run broad and into the surface barrier on the banked Flip 13.
Behind the 2 Silver Arrows, Lando Norris ran to seventh for McLaren forward of Ocon and Bottas as Yuki Tsunoda set the tempo for AlphaTauri in tenth.
Behind Alonso, Pierre Gasly and Mick Schumacher, the Aston Martins sandwiched Daniel Ricciardo as Stroll grabbed 14th whereas substitute teammate Hulkenberg was sixteenth.
