Red Bull Racing Mexican driver Sergio Perez continued his rich vein of form as he topped the timesheets in opening practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc slotting into second. Sergio Perez, winner not only at Monaco last time out but at this very location last season, used the soft tyres to go quickest – 0.127s ahead of Charles Leclerc, with championship leader Max Verstappen three tenths adrift in third.
Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz, who like the rest of the top 10, set his best time using soft tyres, was fourth with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso shooting up to P5 very late in the session.
But regardless of the lap time, what stood out the most was the big top straight line speed difference between Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull in the first free practice session for the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix:
FERRARI 321 km/h
RBR 331 km/h
MER 317 km/h
ALPINE 329 km/h
AT 328 km/h
HAAS 318 km/h
ALFA 316 km/h
As explained by Italian journalist and Formula 1 expert Giuliano Duchessa, the Maranello team only partially used MGU-H energy recovery in each launch lap, in order to preserve its life. As a result, Red Bull was 25km/h faster on the long straight, which affected the gaps in the first and last sector at the Baku City Circuit. The traction of the F1-75 in helped recover time in the second sector.
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