F1 News: Verstappen tops opening practice for Azerbaijan GP

Without the use of a tow, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen turned a lap of 1m45.546s to top opening practice for the 2024 Azerbaijan GP around the Baku City Circuit.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Verstappen was up 0.7s on the field through the first two sectors but only ended up 0.313s faster than Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton who had a big tow in the final sector.

The 2nd Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez, was third, 0.376s behind Verstappen and looking much better than his recent performance.

McLaren driver Lando Norris was 0.481s behind Verstappen in 4th.

While his Ferrari teammate stuffed his car into the barriers, Carlos Sainz Jr. rounded out the top-5, 0.627s behind Verstappen.

Esteban Ocon was the only driver not to set a lap time, a Power unit issue curtailing his running and leaving Alpine with work to do before FP2.

At least Alpine won’t be alone in working through lunch – Williams need to fix up Franco Colapinto’s crashed car, and Ferrari likewise have work to do on Leclerc’s.

Franco Colapinto, competing in only his second FP2 session, was showing an impressive turn of speed but the Williams driver couldn’t catch a little snap at Turn 4 and slid into the wall. That brought out the red flag for the third time (the first was to clear debris while the second was required to clear Leclerc’s stricken Ferrari and repair the barrier.

Leclerc was looking good early in the first hour of running in Azerbaijan as he set the pace on medium tires.

However, he clipped the dirt on the outside of the approach to Turn 15 and slid into the wall, bringing out the red flags and ending his session with 30 minutes to go.

Colapinto was classified 16th, a fraction ahead of Alex Albon who had a little trip down the escape road at Turn 4 but kept it out of the barriers.

It looks like there won’t be much in it between the top four teams as predicted, so qualifying tomorrow could all come down to the driver – which is always exciting.

FP1 also showed how tricky this track is before the grip comes to the drivers, with incidents aplenty and likely more to come in FP2.

Azerbaijan GP Practice 1 Results