BAKU, Sept 13 (Askume) – Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the fastest time on Friday after crashing in practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as champions Red Bull regained some inspiration after a disappointing result to regain the title.
Leclerc was the winner of the last round of the Italian Grand Prix and achieved pole position for three consecutive years in Baku, after the first practice session was halved, he came back with a final lap time of 1 minute and 43.484 seconds. Q2. Take the lead in practice.
Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez, two-time champion in Baku and the best driver on the city’s circuit, was just 0.006 seconds behind.
“The pace was similar today, but because of the incident in FP1 (first practice) and the steering problem in FP2 we didn’t complete many laps,” said Leclerc.
“It is very important for us to get things going in FP3 (final practice) and be ready to make the most of tomorrow’s qualifying session.”
Perez’s teammate and Formula 1 leader Max Verstappen set the fastest lap of the three-race opening practice session with a 1:45.546 but was set back by understeer and glasses problems in later practice sessions and dropped to sixth.
“We have learned a lot and now it’s a matter of fine-tuning the things we have tried, but I think we will be more competitive this weekend,” said Verstappen, who leads McLaren driver Lando Norris by 62 points.
Norris was fourth in the first practice and 17th in the second before being held up by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
“To be honest, I had to work really hard to get the lap times and I think we still have a lot to do.
“Compared to Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, they are all very similar, but there is a gap of three-tenths, four-tenths of a second between us. So we still have a lot of work to do.”
Happy Hamilton
Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton set the second best time in the opening practice session and ended the day with the third fastest time for Mercedes.
His teammate George Russell was delayed in Q2 by a precautionary power unit change but finished ninth fastest.
In the first practice session, red flags were raised – first when marshals collected debris, then when Leclerc and Williams’ Argentine Franco Colapinto had separate incidents.
With 33 minutes left in the race Leclerc hit the wall at Turn 15, the Monegasque driver was going too fast and eventually got stuck in the corner.
With 18 minutes remaining in the race, Colapinto also collided with the guardrail at the fourth corner, sending the rear of the car into the wall.
The Argentine was starting his second game of the weekend after taking over from American Logan Sargeant until the end of the season.
The race resumed with 11 minutes remaining and ended with Verstappen fastest as Red Bull attempted to rediscover their early season form, with the team’s ground upgrades appearing to pay off.
British youngster Oliver Bellman made his Haas debut in place of the suspended Kevin Magnussen and finished 11th in practice, 0.162 seconds ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg.
Bellman finished tenth in the second session, while Hülkenberg finished eighth.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon lost pace at the start, ending his debut prematurely. The Frenchman finished 19th the following season.
