AZERBAIJAN GP – Max Verstappen fastest by three tenths in scrappy first practice
Max Verstappen was fastest in the first practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Red Bull driver set a 45.546 on his final attempt which put him just over three-tenths faster than Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver managed to split the two Red Bull’s after going six hundredths faster than Sergio Perez.
Verstappen and Red Bull appeared at this early stage to be in better shape than they were during a difficult weekend at Monza. The Dutchman is facing an onslaught from Norris and McLaren in the championship, and is sixty-two points clear with eight races remaining this season.
Red Bull is hoping that an upgrade to the floor could begin to address the problems with inconsistent balance of which Verstappen has been complaining in recent races. This would suggest that the team could be more competitive than in recent weeks as the Dutchman seeks to protect his lead over Norris in the Drivers’ Championship.
The session on the streets of Baku was heavily interrupted by red flags as several drivers made mistakes and found the wall. But that could be put down to dusty and windy conditions as the track rubbers in as Baku is known for the wind blowing off the Caspian Sea.
The stoppages ultimately resulted in more than a third of the session being lost, limiting running and making it difficult to assess the times delivered by the front-runners.
Baku’s high-speed layout offers low grip at the best of times as a one-off street circuit, but a light rain shower in the morning washed away what little grip F2 cars had attempted to lay down in their practice sessions.
Lando Norris was fourth nearly half a second of the pace and a tenth behind Perez, with the Ferrari Carlos Sainz a tenth and a half off and ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri by just over a tenth. McLaren can overtake Red Bull this weekend if they outscore the champions by eight points.
Things were not all great for Ferrari, Charles Leclerc ending the session ninth a second off, after he broke his right front corner at Turn Fifteen bringing out a red flag.
On the team radio, Leclerc explained scooping up dirt caused his relatively low-speed shunt, with replays confirming the Ferrari driver dipped his front-right wheel off the racing line onto a dirtier part of the track, which led to a lock-up. But the Ferrari driver before his crash appeared to be consistently fast.
Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin seventh as he went just over six hundredths faster than George Russell. Leclerc ended the session eight hundredths ahead of the RB of Daniel Ricciardo who completed the top ten.
It was a strong start for Haas Ollie Bearman in his first full race weekend, having replaced the banned Kevin Magnussen ahead of his debut as a full-time driver next season, was eleventh three-tenths almost behind Ricciardo. Haas looks to have the pace in FP1, as Bearman went a tenth and a half faster than teammate Nico Hulkenberg.
Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin thirteenth nearly half a second faster than Valtteri. Bottas with Yuki Tsunoda fifteenth. Franco Colapinto was sixteenth going half a tenth ahead of Williams teammate Alex Albon, before the Argentine found the wall causing damage to the front of his car.
Pierre Gasly was eighteenth going three and a half tenths faster than Guanyu Zhou, while Esteban Ocon failed to set a time after a suspected engine failure.