Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton shared Friday practice sessions in F1 Azerbaijan GP, amid several drivers kissing the barriers and having offs.
FP1 –
Lando Norris set the pace during Friday’s first practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, leading the way from McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc following a lengthy red flag. After a two-week break, F1 cars burst back into action at the Baku City Circuit when the green light switched on at the end of the pit lane at 1230 local time – plenty of drivers quick to head out on track amid cloudy but dry weather conditions.
Both McLaren drivers received interesting radio messages in the early stages of the session, with Norris being told to return to the pits to “remove something”, which turned out to be a component cover, and Piastri being urged to “back off” and “avoid full load”. Elsewhere, Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto proved just how slippery the track conditions were by going deep at Turn 3 and taking to the run-off, while Alex Albon lost one of the mirrors from his Williams and George Russell reported that he could smell “burning”.
Just under a quarter of the way into the session, with plenty to talk about already, an issue at Turn 16 triggered the first red flag of the weekend. Replays then showed that the incident had been caused by Williams’ Carlos Sainz running over the kerb and leaving part of it loose. Norris had risen to the top of the timesheets just before that red flag was thrown, producing a time of 1m 43.747s on Pirelli’s soft compound tyre to comfortably lead Russell (also battling illness and “a serious amount of bottoming”), Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
After a delay that allowed marshals to repair the kerb, the session resumed with around 20 minutes remaining and drivers picked up their respective programmes – Piastri back in the cockpit thanks to McLaren mechanics seemingly rectifying his power unit problem. Provisional pace-setter Norris continued where he left off to pump in a 1m 42.704s, putting him a full second clear of Verstappen and team mate Piastri, while Lewis Hamilton clipped the wall on the entry to Turn 5 and was forced to return to the pits with front wing damage.
As the final soft-shod laps came in, Piastri got a solid effort on the board to slot three-tenths behind Norris, with serial Azerbaijan polesitter Leclerc – who has topped the last four Qualifying sessions in the ‘Land of Fire’ – half a second adrift in third. Russell wound up fourth in the lead Mercedes, from Albon (who thumped the wall late on) and the Red Bull cars of Yuki Tsunoda and Verstappen – the reigning four-time World Champion abandoning a lap when he ran out of road on entry to the tight Turn 15.
Sainz made it two Williams cars inside the top 10 positions, followed by the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar (the French rookie another to take to the run-off in the closing stages), and the Silver Arrows machine of Kimi Antonelli. Sauber duo Nico Hulkenberg and Bortoleto sandwiched Hamilton’s Ferrari in positions 12 to 14, from the Aston Martin and Haas drivers (Fernando Alonso just ahead of Ollie Bearman, Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon), as Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly brought up the rear for Alpine.
FP2 –
Lewis Hamilton led a Ferrari 1-2 in Free Practice 2 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as Lando Norris’ session came to an early end after hitting the barrier. Hamilton’s 1m 41.293s left him 0.074s clear of Charles Leclerc in the final classification as the McLarens of Norris and Oscar Piastri struggled for performance throughout, finishing only 10th and 12th respectively.
Even in the opening minutes the Baku run-off areas were put into use, Liam Lawson running deep at the downhill left-hander of Turn 15, with Hamilton doing the same at Turn 7 as drivers explored the limits for the second one-hour session. Having spent a large portion of the opening session in the garage while a power unit issue was rectified, Piastri hit the track almost immediately in FP2 with the soft Pirelli tyre, posting a 1m 43.307s on his first flying lap that put him to the top of the times initially.
But the times soon began to tumble as more rubber was put down on the circuit and drivers utilised the softest compound, with Norris’ leading lap from FP1 easily beaten inside the opening 10 minutes. After the opening flurry Norris was left fastest with a 1m 42.199s, fractionally faster than Leclerc, the Ferrari driver having taken pole position for the last four editions of the Azerbaijan GP and showing his prowess again around the street circuit, becoming the first driver to dip below the 1m 42s mark with a 1m 41.786s.
Team mate Hamilton slotted into second less than two-tenths behind before jumping to the top with a 1m 41.543s on the 20-minute mark, both laps having been achieved on the medium rubber to give teams a possible tyre conundrum ahead of Qualifying on Saturday. Norris’ session then unravelled at the halfway point, the McLaren driver striking the wall on the exit of Turn 4 which damaged his left-rear suspension, and although the Briton was able to recover back to the pits, he remained in the garage until the chequered flag.
Just minutes later, Drivers’ Championship leader Piastri joined his team mate in the pits having glanced the Tecpro barrier at Turn 15 before being sent on his way after precautionary checks. Meanwhile, Leclerc moved back to the top of the times with a 1m 41.367s as the Ferraris engaged in their own personal duel, Hamilton going fastest on a 1m 41.293s on the softs with just over 10 minutes left for the fastest lap of the day. Mercedes’ George Russell finished best of the rest, just under half a second behind Hamilton, and ahead of team mate Kimi Antonelli, Haas’ Ollie Bearman, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Lawson (Racing Bulls).
Esteban Ocon completed a positive day for Haas in eighth from Alex Albon, Norris and the second Williams of Carlos Sainz. Piastri finished 12th but was placed under investigation for a yellow flag infringement to be investigated after the session, from Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls), Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) and Gabriel Bortoleto (Kick Sauber). The order was completed by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Nico Hulkenberg (Kick Sauber), the second Aston martin of Fernando Alonso and Franco Colapinto, the Alpine driver two seconds off the pace.
[The story is as per press release]