Friday at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was pretty much a half day, given that the scheduled three hours of track time was reduced to slightly less than 90 minutes. The first session was stopped after 13 minutes when a manhole cover came loose in the first sector of the 6.003 km long track, and did not re-start. Then, in the second session, there were two red flag interruptions, which reduced the scheduled time by 18 minutes. Therefore one cannot read too much into the lap times, as teams had to adjust their programmes to fit the available time.
Tomorrow’s third and final practice session to prepare for the race and qualifying takes place at 14 local time. Qualifying is at 17 (15 CET). The race on Sunday gets underway at 16.10 (14.10 CET).
Charles Leclerc #16
“After a day like today, it’s difficult to get a clear picture of where we all stand, especially in terms of long run pace, when I think traffic was a factor. In qualifying trim, I felt comfortable, but also in this aspect, we will have to wait until tomorrow to get a clearer picture. However, we still have quite a bit of work to do to get the maximum out of the SF90 and that’s what we will concentrate on in the final free practice session. If we manage that, then we can be competitive. I love city tracks in general and this is a very challenging circuit, especially in the part of the castle. We have tried the updates in FP2. For now the update is positive, but it doesn’t mean anything. Mercedes also seems very competitive on the race pace. Tomorrow we will see exactly where we are.”
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