There was both excitement and apprehension in Baku ahead of what promised to be a fascinating session to start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend. With the drivers limited to just 60 minutes of practice before returning for qualifying later this afternoon, the stakes were high, with the slightest error at the Baku City Circuit having the potential to ruin a weekend.
The sun had just about forced its way through after a cloudy morning, but the wind – gusting through the buildings the circuit is built around – provided an additional challenge that the drivers needed to remain aware of. After months of talking about Formula 1’s new Sprint format, it was finally here and we eagerly awaited for the track action to begin. It is a track where we have seen red flag interruptions and the teams had to be careful to get as much information as possible because that was it.
Green flag and Max Verstappen led the way onto the track as we were under way for the ONLY practice session at the Baku City Circuit this weekend. Plenty of cars were out straight away as they looked to get the data in and George Russell was immediately on the radio to say the track was very slippery.
Ferrari man Carlos Sainz was the first driver to hit one of Baku’s walls as he tagged the barriers at Turn Five. It was a fairly hefty bump but the Spaniard appeared to have escaped damage and continues in the Ferrari SF-23 car. A few moments later, there was a problem for Yuki Tsunoda as he had a huge puncture after hitting the wall and spinning: “We have a puncture Yuki,” he was told and he was trundling round to get back to the pits.
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With 46 minutes to go, Pierre Gasly’s Alpine had fire coming out the back of his Alpine as the Red Flag was thrown out. This was a horrendous start to the weekend for Alpine. Smoke was continuing to billow out of the airbox of Pierre Gasly’s car: it looked like it would still be some time before we were able to resume running and this delay was not what the teams wanted with such limited practice this weekend in Azerbaijan. Kevin Magnussen’s Haas also stopped on track just as red flag was put out for Pierre Gasly’s car.
We lost 13 minutes to that red flag but the session then resumed as cars lined back up in the pit lane. Lewis Hamilton was among the cars to immediately head back out – Mercedes fixed his brake issue but the Briton was the only driver yet to set a time so far, as we also had the confirmation that Pierre Gasly suffered a hydraulic issue that caused the red flag.
Both of the Mercs hadn’t had much of a chance to get a good time in before the red flag but both were running low on the timesheet at this stage: George Russell was 14th and +2.785 off the pace, with Lewis Hamilton in 15th and +2.890 behind. Carlos Sainz was third for the Maranello team midway through the first free practice session, +0.400 from Max Verstappen, while Charles Leclerc was fourth, +0.586
Fernando Alonso reported his DRS was not opening on the Aston Martin car: the Spaniard was seventh in the timesheet but had to pit to get the issue fixed. Oscar Piastri was down in 19th in the timesheet, but Ted Kravitz reported the Australian had been doing testing runs on the upgraded McLaren at that stage Soon after, Piastri bolted on a set of soft tyres and was set to do his first real flying lap of the day. And he had plenty of space to do it with only Lewis Hamilton out on track with him at that moment, as everyone else was getting ready for their low fuel runs. Oscar Piastri’s soft tyre lap jumped him up to seventh: a 1:44.558 was seven tenths off Max Verstappen’s leading time in the session, as the championship leader was getting ready to do his own soft tyre flying lap.
With nine minutes to go until the end of the first free practice session at the Baku City Circuit, it was a close call for Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc as he ran off the track in sector one and had to keep himself out of the wall in the run off area. Despite that moment and despite the fact that we didn’t have long left of this session, Charles Leclerc went gone quickest with a 1:42.352, +0.248s quicker than Sergio Perez. But just as the chequered flag came out, Max Verstappen snatched the fastest time.
The Dutchman posts a 1:42.315 with his final flying lap to pip Charles Leclerc by 0.037s. Sergio Perez had to settle for the third fastest time of the session, just over a tenth of a second off his team-mate. Carlos Sainz was fourth fastest in the second Ferrari SF-23 challenger, while Lando Norris was a very respectable fifth in the upgraded McLaren. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were 11th and 17th respectively having not done a low-fuel run in the session.
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